Nastya owns a small home-based business. She bakes cakes to order. In the past year, her baking has allowed her to raise R349,000 for charity, almost $5000, helping dozens of organizations while sharing with thousands of subscribers what is actually happening in Ukraine.
In an interview with the Russian journal Cherta (translated and published here with permission), Nastya explained how she organized her fundraising, turned baking into a form of protest, and why she has chosen to stay in Russia.
I have loved to cook since I was a child. For the holidays, I was always given copies of books by Yulia Vysotskaya [an actress and author who has published over 20 cookbooks] or Jamie Oliver. Once, my mother even brought the cookbook 1000 Russian Dishes home from work. I simply adored it, because now I could cover the table with dishes and make all sorts of stuff. And, as it turns out, I rather like multitasking. When you need to fry something here, boil something over there, you feel like a true ninja.
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The idea has its roots in the “going to the people” movement of the nineteenth century: let each do what they can, and together we will improve the world; do quiet work in the culture to make people’s lives easier; there is no need to get involved in politics.
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