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# Bell peppers have been known in Russia since at least the 16th century: the crop reached us from Turkey and Iran
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/bolgarskie-pertsy-izvestny-v-rossii-izvestny-kak-minimum-s-xvi-veka-kultura-popala-k-nam-iz-turtsii-i-irana/
- Published: 2024-08-05T10:58:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:33:03.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, The East, Science, Nature

Bell peppers have been known in Russia since at least the 16th century: the crop reached us from Turkey and Iran. According to one version, the name, which in Russian means "Bulgarian pepper", comes from the fact that the peppers were brought by Bulgarian settlers; according to another, it is because large-fruited peppers were developed in Bulgaria itself, although for the first centuries in Rus' it was nonetheless called Turkish. In other countries the crop is simply called sweet pepper. The first mention occurs in the herbal of Ivan the Terrible, in the manuscript "The Cool Orchard, or Herbal" (*Blagoprokhladny vertograd ili travnik*).

Illustration: Peppers by the Swiss artist Félix Vallotton, 1915