In September 2018, I took an early morning train for the three-hour trip from Saint Petersburg to Veliky Novgorod, founded in 859 and traditionally considered the cradle of Russian statehood. Veliky Novgorod is now recognized for dozens of medieval monuments, including monasteries, churches and Kremlin, all added to the list of World Heritage Sites in 1992. But the memory of the bear sausage I ate at lunch at Dom Berga will linger longer than that of Russia’s foundational religious buildings.