SAMA HOOLE: Russian nobility ate: meat daily, game, poultry, fish, dairy, butter, eggs, some bread. Essentially unlimited animal protein. The physical results were stark. Serf conscripts into the Russian army averaged 5'4" to 5'6". Noble officers averaged 5'9" to 6'0". Same Slavic genetic population. Six-inch height difference.

Imperial Russia, 1700-1861. The class divide was extreme and the diet reflected it.

Russian serfs ate: black bread from rye, cabbage, beets, potatoes, occasional kasha, minimal dairy, almost no meat except feast days. Fish where available but most serfs were landlocked.

Russian… pic.twitter.com/6lmK4R7fOe

— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) January 10, 2026

Imperial Russia, 1700-1861. The class divide was extreme and the diet reflected it. Russian serfs ate: black bread from rye, cabbage, beets, potatoes, occasional kasha, minimal dairy, almost no meat except feast days. Fish where available but most serfs were landlocked. Russian nobility ate: meat daily, game, poultry, fish, dairy, butter, eggs, some bread. Essentially unlimited animal protein. The physical results were stark. Serf conscripts into the Russian army averaged 5'4" to 5'6". Noble officers averaged 5'9" to 6'0". Same Slavic genetic population. Six-inch height difference. Military records are explicit about this. Recruitment standards had to account for class because the height difference was so consistent. Serfs were shorter, weaker, more prone to disease. This created military problems. Russian armies performed poorly against Western European forces partly because the conscript base was physically inferior. Napoleon's soldiers, even common infantry, were taller and stronger than Russian serfs despite similar poverty. Why? French common soldiers had more meat access. Even poor French ate cheese regularly, occasional meat, plenty of fish. Russian serfs had almost none. The health differential was documented. Serf communities had tuberculosis rates 3-4x higher than noble estates. Rickets was endemic among serf children, essentially absent among noble children. Life expectancy for serfs was 35-40. For nobility it was 55-60. Russian literature preserves this. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky both describe the physical weakness of peasants compared to nobles. It's treated as natural order but it was nutritional hierarchy. After serf emancipation in 1861, there was gradual improvement as former serfs could access better food. But the improvement was slow because most remained poor. It took until Soviet period with industrialization for average Russian height to increase substantially. Soviet nutrition policy, whatever else was wrong with it, did prioritize protein access. State farms, collective farms, meat rationing ensured wider distribution. Average Soviet height increased 3-4 inches between 1920 and 1960.

The class-based height difference in Imperial Russia wasn't genetic destiny. It was bread versus meat. The nobles ate meat and grew tall. The serfs ate bread and stayed short.