Mushrooms and the Autumn Moon

This autumn, thousands upon thousands of Ukraine’s inveterate mushroom pickers have headed into forests where the harvest is unusually abundant.

For many “mushroomers,” this pleasant activity is no longer just a hobby but a vital part of preparations for winter – one predicted to be even more difficult than the last, with potential food supply issues on top of a lack of heating and electricity.

Gathering and preserving mushrooms has become not only a means of self-sufficiency but also a small-scale business. On online forums and classified ad sites, hundreds of Ukrainians are selling preserved mushrooms to those unable to venture into the forest themselves.

In the Poltava region, mushroom pickers can safely forage only five days a week. Regional authorities strongly advise against going into the forest on weekends as local officials have opened the wildlife hunting season. Mushroom picking is not banned on weekends, but it carries the obvious risk of becoming an accidental casualty of someone else’s hunt.

In areas where local authorities have authorized hunting, police patrols are expected to be present in the forests to check the legality of hunters’ guns. These checks may enable the police to recover some of the weapons that have made their way from the front lines to the rear, but it is a risky business. Hunters carrying unregistered weapons pose a danger not only to wildlife but also to the police.

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The most notorious “hunting accident” was the 2007 killing of Yevhen Kushnariov, an influential politician who served as mayor of Kharkiv, head of the Kharkiv Regional Administration, and head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine.

Although also considered a pro-Russian politician, Kushnariov was a potential rival to the pro-Russian governor of the Donetsk region, Viktor Yanukovych, in the 2010 presidential election.

Incidentally, the hunter who killed Kushnariov was never convicted. The court ruled that the incident was an accident and granted amnesty to the person responsible.

While Ukrainians are preparing stocks of mushrooms for the harsh winter ahead, Russia has turned its expansionist gaze toward space. Alexander Prokhanov, a conservative writer and chairman of the so-called “Izborsk Club,” joined forces with the Kremlin-aligned “Night Wolves” biker club to hold a “Baptism of the Moon” ceremony near the Estonian border.

Prokhanov explained the move to the Russian journalists present: “Just as Rus’ was baptized and Russia became Orthodox, we have decided to baptize the Moon, to make it Orthodox, and unite it with Russia.”

The Izborsk Club, founded in 2012 by Prokhanov and Alexander Dugin, the chief ideologue of the “Russian World” concept, continues to enjoy Putin’s support.

Funded by the Kremlin, the club develops “educational materials” for schools in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. It has also been active in “cultural-patriotic” projects in annexed Crimea, where, with the club’s backing, a rock opera titled “Journey into the Fire” was staged. Based on Prokhanov’s own poetry, this production celebrates the heroes of the war against Ukraine.

The Russian Orthodox Church has not yet officially commented or formally ratified the introduction of the Moon into the Moscow Patriarchate. That does not mean the Moon won’t be recognized as Orthodox at some point in the future. After all, Alexander Dugin has been calling for war with the West and the elimination of the Ukrainian state for nearly 30 years. As early as 1997, he published “The Foundations of Geopolitics,” describing Ukraine as a “state with no geopolitical significance” – a “territory that must be subordinated to Russia.”

In today’s Russia, almost any delusional idea stands a chance of becoming part of actual policy. In the Pskov region, where the “christening” of the Moon took place, an unprecedented mushroom harvest is being observed. Russia has not seen a mushroom harvest like this in years. Thousands of mushroom pickers are gathering, drying, and preserving wild mushrooms in the area, and the regional Russian press is filled with articles about the harvest. Indeed, there is currently more talk of mushrooms than of Russia’s war against Ukraine. This is understandable. Mushrooms provide a far more pleasant topic of conversation.

Incidentally, neither Dugin nor Prokhanov are known for a love of the “silent hunt.” However, in one of his essays, Prokhanov wrote that in the event of a nuclear war, “it [the Russian people] will leave the cities for the fields and forests. It will gather mushrooms, berries, and nuts. In times of great sorrow, the Russian people are ready to transform into a nation of chipmunks and hamsters – stocking up on all manner of roots and bulbs.”