ABSTRACT
This chapter explores relationships between food practices and the sense of national belonging within the context of Russian-speaking migration to the UK. It examines how attachments to familiar and national food are articulated by UK-based Russian-speaking migrants and migrant communities in a new cultural context. The chapter discusses several culture-specific food practices that reveal complex connections between diasporic culture and the sense of Russianness in immigration. It provides an overview of current debates on diasporic identity and senses of home/belonging through food practices, followed by the analysis of the role of food within the context of Russian migration to the UK. The chapter also discusses: the specific practices surrounding bringing food from Russia; the 'exclusivity' of Russian food and its significance to migrants' Russianness; the nostalgic longing and need for food, maintained by migrants as way of connection to Russian culture; and the influences and relationships between 'Soviet', 'post-Soviet' and 'Russian' within migrants' shared mythology and cultural memory.
