The First McDonald’s In Moscow Opened In 1990, And These 27 Pics Show How Insane It All Was
Under the right circumstances, even the simplest things can become symbolic. An opening of a McDonald’s restaurant, for example, sounds kind of mundane, I mean there’s already a gazillion of them around the world. But the first McDonald’s in Soviet Russia? That’s something else.
The Moscow McDonald’s initiative was a joint venture between McDonald’s of Canada and the Moscow city council. A plan first envisioned when George Cohon, founder, and CEO of McDonald’s Canada, met Soviet Union officials at the ’76 Summer Olympics in Montreal. And almost a quarter of a century later, on January 31st, 1990 it became a reality.
At the time of its construction, it was the largest McDonald’s restaurant in the world. A venue with 900 seats with a staff of about 600 workers that were carefully selected from 35,000 applicants.
Reportedly, it was expected to serve around 1,000 during the McDonald’s opening day. And in the country where the average salary was about 150 rubles per month, a Big “Mak” was selling for 3.75 rubles. That, however, didn’t stop the people from getting their first taste of it. A crowd of more than 5,000 Soviet citizens lined up in Pushkinskaya Square before it even opened and about 30,000 customers passed through the door throughout the whole day.
The summer came, but the lines just kept growing. People from other cities were flocking the McDonald’s restaurant just for a single hamburger. “We stood under the melting sun for around eight hours,” photographer Mitya Kushelevich recalled. “That wasn’t so much of a problem as we were used to standing in lines for days just to get our monthly ration of sugar and tea.”
“Once inside we were blown away by the number of young cashiers behind the huge counter, smiling, moving like bees, serving one meal after another. Nothing like our fat old ladies in white gowns sitting in front of empty shelves, pyramids of dusty canned food as window dressing.”
“I still remember how insanely huge the milkshake looked and I didn’t know how to hold a Big Mac with my tiny hands.”
“Everything tasted more intense than anything I’d ever tried before. I ate and drank and chewed like it was my last meal on earth. Around ten minutes and 5,000 calories later, my body alerted me to the fact that it wasn’t quite able to digest all the fatty deliciousness and that it was probably a good time to check out how an American toilet looked like from the inside. I wasn’t alone: the queues to the toilets, especially the women’s, was almost as long as the queues outside.”
Continue scrolling and check out the historical pictures that captured the whole madness.
On January 31, 1990, the first Soviet McDonald’s opened, in Moscow
It was the largest McDonald’s in the world at the time of its construction
And a venue with 900 seats needed a lot of employees, too
In a country where unemployment did not exist, 35,000 people applied for a job in the fast food restaurant
Around 600 were hired
The venture had been in talks with the Soviet officials since 1976
And you could say that the appearance of this notorious symbol of capitalism was a sign that times were changing
Reportedly, the restaurant expected to serve around 1,000 during its first day, but more than 5,000 Russians lined up in Pushkinskaya Square before it even opened
The summer came but the lines just kept growing. People from other cities were flocking the restaurant just for a single hamburger
“We stood under the melting sun for around eight hours,” one visitor said
“That wasn’t so much of a problem as we were used to standing in lines for days just to get our monthly ration of sugar and tea”
“Once inside we were blown away by the number of young cashiers behind the huge counter, smiling, moving like bees, serving one meal after another”
“Nothing like our fat old ladies in white gowns sitting in front of empty shelves, pyramids of dusty canned food as window dressing”
“I still remember how insanely huge the milkshake looked and I didn’t know how to hold a Big Mac with my tiny hands”
The Moscow McDonald’s initiative was a joint venture between McDonald’s of Canada and Moscow city council
A plan first envisioned when George Cohon, founder and CEO of McDonald’s Canada, met Soviet officials at the ’76 Summer Olympics in Montreal
“I’m particularly proud of the people story behind the first opening, both from Canada and Russia, learning from each other and working as one team”
“This is a story about co-operation between nations”
“And it is also a story about the Soviet who saw a sign outside reading ‘Rubles Only’ – and who said to me, ‘This is my restaurant'”
The opening drew many important people
Including Boris Yeltsin who later became the 1st President of Russia
And in the country where the average salary was about 150 rubles per month
A Big “Mak” was selling for 3.75 rubles
And people couldn’t get enough
In total, over 30,000 customers passed through the doors on the opening day of the restaurant
Setting a record for the number of customers served by a single McDonald’s in a day
The Soviet Union dissolved on December 26, 1991
Today, 649 McDonald’s are operating in a hundred Russian cities
They stood under the melting sun for hours? In Moscow, on Jan 31st? C'mon now!
I checked the archives, the high temperature in Moscow on 31-Jan-1990 was 1.8 degrees Celsius. So the sun certainly was melting the snow!
Load More Replies...Around here, they can't get my order correct with only 4 other customers there. Impressive.
I swear I love that place but it their burgers and fries don't taste as good as when I was a kid 30 years ago.
Load More Replies..."The venture had been in talks with the Soviet officials for almost a quarter of a century, since 1976" . It opened in 1990, that makes it 14 years !!
I was there in June, 1990 with a group of exchange students. Having eaten only Russian and Finnish food for months we were craving a taste of home. Compared to the US the prices were insanely inexpensive. With an exchange rate of 20 rubles to the dollar at the time, we could feed all six of us teenagers quite well on just a dollar or two. One of the oddest things about the trip was paying for ketchup. They charged 15 kopecks per pack.
We were in Moscow for a Physics Conference 3 years ago. There are a surprising amount of American franchises there now, even Dunkin Donuts. We saw them but preferred to explore the local foods and do a great hotdog if you want fast food. Many great upscale restaurants and as foodies, we had some memorable meals. McDonalds wasn't one of them however.
Food in Russia is so good. Definitely underrated cuisine
Load More Replies...Haaa! Never trust a cook names BORIS....
Load More Replies...TanaCon, but with a good ending and happy people who got their Big Maks
Waiting under the melting sun for around eight hours? I'm not sure if I would (or even could) do that. And there were so many people ... Wow! I bet it wasn't easy for the staff either that first day.
For McDonalds probably not, but now imagine you have to wait that much for everyday stuff like bread, milk, eggs etc. and you have kids waiting for you at home.
Load More Replies...We went to McDonalds in Moscow in 1991 whilst I was there for my A Level Economics course from London. We queued for 4/5 hours and remember ordering everything on the menu twice for us and 5 students as we were was so hungry and it was so cheap. A Russian family of 4 behind us only ordered 4 hamburgers as it was so expensive, despite queuing as long as us. We turned around and gave all our spare Rubles and change so they could buy more food and the mum nearly kissed her.
I've been to that McDonald's and I wanted to take pictures inside.. I got yelled at by a security guard in 2007!
We could wish they would be more democratic, not assassinate political opponents, reduce military aggression, and not invade neighbors, but all we could really give them was burgers and fries. Well, in the long run it will kill them, but it is a weak strategy.
OMGosh this is amazing. We in the USA take all this for granted and the Russians lined up for hours just to get a hamburger. The lines were long than the lines at the "In-and-Out Burger" when the first one opened here in Dallas.
It was winter, and quite cold, I was passing by this huge line with a friend and told her "We should bring a cart and start selling hot sausages and hot drinks to people waiting in line to McDonald's". We laughed and went on, but I always thought it could have been a great - and profitable - joke.
It was something similar when the first McDonalds opened in Romania in 1995 - 15.000 people queued outside it on opening day and that year it was really trendy to have your birthday party at McDonalds...
Wait...649 restaurants in 100 CITIES?? That's a lot of mcds in every city
Is this the location? Bol'shaya Bronnaya Ulitsa, 29, Moskva, Russia, 123104
Moscow schmoscow. If they don’t have the Dutch fries sauce, it’s no real Mcdonalds to me...
This need explanation! How can that boy drink through a straw when he tills the cup at the same time?!?!? =)
Only if there's enough fluid in there and the lid is strong enough. And there's no place between the straw and the lid. But the cup was probably empty and he was just playing around. (The other boy looks at him as if he were crazy :) )
Load More Replies...it's not different from staying in line today to buy the last iphone. we are brain-washed
It is very different! For the Soviet people who did not have any choice in food or entertainment or anything, McDonalds was a breath of fresh air, a sign of changing times, a sign of freedom.
Load More Replies...All these people waited in lines to get disappointed by the s****y plastic food that would never better a traditional Russian pirozhok or varenik! McDonald's had the same over-hyped opening in my home-town in Ukraine in late 90s and all the kids would show off in front of each other, if their parents took them there. When my parents finally took me there, and I tried that stupid MacWhatever...LMAO! Never asked them to take me there again! Overrated western b******t!
"600 young cashiers" instead of "fat old ladies". I know it's a cultural reference, but that's pretty rude. Why couldn't the writer just say "older ladies"?
If they were fat, then it's quoting a fact. Adding the word fat makes you realize it fits right in with the stereotype of the fat old Russian women. It adds context and therefore is helpful.
Load More Replies...They stood under the melting sun for hours? In Moscow, on Jan 31st? C'mon now!
I checked the archives, the high temperature in Moscow on 31-Jan-1990 was 1.8 degrees Celsius. So the sun certainly was melting the snow!
Load More Replies...Around here, they can't get my order correct with only 4 other customers there. Impressive.
I swear I love that place but it their burgers and fries don't taste as good as when I was a kid 30 years ago.
Load More Replies..."The venture had been in talks with the Soviet officials for almost a quarter of a century, since 1976" . It opened in 1990, that makes it 14 years !!
I was there in June, 1990 with a group of exchange students. Having eaten only Russian and Finnish food for months we were craving a taste of home. Compared to the US the prices were insanely inexpensive. With an exchange rate of 20 rubles to the dollar at the time, we could feed all six of us teenagers quite well on just a dollar or two. One of the oddest things about the trip was paying for ketchup. They charged 15 kopecks per pack.
We were in Moscow for a Physics Conference 3 years ago. There are a surprising amount of American franchises there now, even Dunkin Donuts. We saw them but preferred to explore the local foods and do a great hotdog if you want fast food. Many great upscale restaurants and as foodies, we had some memorable meals. McDonalds wasn't one of them however.
Food in Russia is so good. Definitely underrated cuisine
Load More Replies...Haaa! Never trust a cook names BORIS....
Load More Replies...TanaCon, but with a good ending and happy people who got their Big Maks
Waiting under the melting sun for around eight hours? I'm not sure if I would (or even could) do that. And there were so many people ... Wow! I bet it wasn't easy for the staff either that first day.
For McDonalds probably not, but now imagine you have to wait that much for everyday stuff like bread, milk, eggs etc. and you have kids waiting for you at home.
Load More Replies...We went to McDonalds in Moscow in 1991 whilst I was there for my A Level Economics course from London. We queued for 4/5 hours and remember ordering everything on the menu twice for us and 5 students as we were was so hungry and it was so cheap. A Russian family of 4 behind us only ordered 4 hamburgers as it was so expensive, despite queuing as long as us. We turned around and gave all our spare Rubles and change so they could buy more food and the mum nearly kissed her.
I've been to that McDonald's and I wanted to take pictures inside.. I got yelled at by a security guard in 2007!
We could wish they would be more democratic, not assassinate political opponents, reduce military aggression, and not invade neighbors, but all we could really give them was burgers and fries. Well, in the long run it will kill them, but it is a weak strategy.
OMGosh this is amazing. We in the USA take all this for granted and the Russians lined up for hours just to get a hamburger. The lines were long than the lines at the "In-and-Out Burger" when the first one opened here in Dallas.
It was winter, and quite cold, I was passing by this huge line with a friend and told her "We should bring a cart and start selling hot sausages and hot drinks to people waiting in line to McDonald's". We laughed and went on, but I always thought it could have been a great - and profitable - joke.
It was something similar when the first McDonalds opened in Romania in 1995 - 15.000 people queued outside it on opening day and that year it was really trendy to have your birthday party at McDonalds...
Wait...649 restaurants in 100 CITIES?? That's a lot of mcds in every city
Is this the location? Bol'shaya Bronnaya Ulitsa, 29, Moskva, Russia, 123104
Moscow schmoscow. If they don’t have the Dutch fries sauce, it’s no real Mcdonalds to me...
This need explanation! How can that boy drink through a straw when he tills the cup at the same time?!?!? =)
Only if there's enough fluid in there and the lid is strong enough. And there's no place between the straw and the lid. But the cup was probably empty and he was just playing around. (The other boy looks at him as if he were crazy :) )
Load More Replies...it's not different from staying in line today to buy the last iphone. we are brain-washed
It is very different! For the Soviet people who did not have any choice in food or entertainment or anything, McDonalds was a breath of fresh air, a sign of changing times, a sign of freedom.
Load More Replies...All these people waited in lines to get disappointed by the s****y plastic food that would never better a traditional Russian pirozhok or varenik! McDonald's had the same over-hyped opening in my home-town in Ukraine in late 90s and all the kids would show off in front of each other, if their parents took them there. When my parents finally took me there, and I tried that stupid MacWhatever...LMAO! Never asked them to take me there again! Overrated western b******t!
"600 young cashiers" instead of "fat old ladies". I know it's a cultural reference, but that's pretty rude. Why couldn't the writer just say "older ladies"?
If they were fat, then it's quoting a fact. Adding the word fat makes you realize it fits right in with the stereotype of the fat old Russian women. It adds context and therefore is helpful.
Load More Replies...
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