Anatoli Galkin. The main chef of the Russian White House
She was a woman of the Soviet era, so talked very little on the topic.
I was twelve years old, and I asked her about the things I was interested in. 
My grandmother never spoke badly about Stalin. 
She always talked about him with respect and warmth. 
Stalin treated his staff at the dacha kindly.
The cooks prepared meals and brought them to a prescribed place.
Nobody ever discussed whether Stalin himself had eaten the meal or it if it was eaten by his private guards.
  And why was shchi (cabbage soup) for Stalin cooked for three days? It seems to be such a simple dish ...
  The "twenty four hour schi" soup is a complex dish. 
It must be cooked in this way.
Chop sauerkraut finely.
It should be really sour, it should be pickled for 2 3 months before use.
It is better if it is not chopped initially. It is better when sauerkraut is pickled as half heads.
Then fry it all over and stew in a deep stewing pan for 5 6  hours in stock or water to taste.
Then put it in a purely meat stock. We usually used three pieces of meat, namely beef, veal and chicken.
It is very good when there is some wildfowl meat  to add. This may be grouse, or quail meat.
When the wildfowl is really wild, it gives a wonderful flavor of the forest.
Then boil it for 2 3 hours and add spices.
Then cool the schi in the same pot and freeze for 10 12 hours.
  Why should it be frozen?
  It gives the sauerkraut a tenderness and a good taste.
Then take the pot out from the freezer. 
The soup should thaw out at indoor temperature by itself, the schi should not be thawed.
Then add the meat set, spices and herbs.
Then pour the schi into a clay pot (this is a very important detail)cover it with puff pastry and bake in the stove for 20 minutes.
If you have a traditional Russian stove(not electric) it is optimal to bake  the schi in a Russian stove, 
because there will appear a delicious crust.
This soup is called "twenty four hour schi".
However, it is virtually the "seventy two hour schi".
  And what other recipes did you inherit from your grandmother?
  You know, recipes ....
Stalin was very fond of Russian cuisine as well as of Georgian.
One shift of the cooks was Russian, the others were  Georgians.
On Stalin's table were always both Russian and Georgian dishes.
All appetizers were Russian, and there were also many Georgian dishes. 
Stalin was fond of meals.
My grandmother frequently said that there was no empty space on the table, the table was filled and the tablecloth could scarcely be seen between plates.
She told me that Stalin enjoyed watching the guests eating more than eating himself.
He watched everybody's manner of eating.
My grandmother said that during the meal Stalin often looked at a man and said: "Why don't you eat? 
Do you dislike anything? Do not you like our company? "
