Fish oil’s journey through Russian and Soviet history

Throughout Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet eras, fish oil has repeatedly changed its role as scientific and technological advances rendered earlier uses obsolete. Originally prized by coastal communities as a dense caloric supplement, it evolved into a cornerstone source of vitamins A and D and later achieved prominence through its rich omega-3 profile, after these fatty acids were recognised for health. In Soviet times, fish oil transcended its nutritional and medicinal roles to become a tool of state health policy and a miraculous lifeline, in particular during the Siege of Leningrad. Today, as a global wellness commodity that still provides a tangible link to marine biodiversity, fish oil epitomises the resilience of natural resources under shifting political, economic and cultural regimes. By tracing these successive ‘metamorphoses’, this paper illuminates how a single commodity can reveal the dynamic interplay between human agency, ideological imperatives and the latent potential of the natural world. This article was published open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .