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!
Or 35.24 Fahrenheit
that was said about the summer queues , not January
made further investigations. Turned out, in Moscow 1990 winter, the very sun melted
They didn't specify what was melting!
:)))) It certainly wasn't melting no Russians!
This came after the statement "Then Summer came". So yea. Sun can be very hot in Moscow in Summer
But the photos don't support that.
"The summer came but the lines just kept growing. People from other cities were flocking the restaurant just for a single hamburger." The restaurant became more and more famous over the months.
In Russia is really cold for most of the year, so when the temperature is up to zero celsium, that could be realy warm for human body... something like when you are in the hot shower, and the you go outside, and feel cold even is there is normal room tempature.
It says "The summer came but the lines just kept growing. " So that was referring to when it was summer
Melting sun or not standing in line for hours to eat macdonalds was a mistake.
It says that days were passing but queues were not getting smaller. So maybe queues stayed until summer:D
You'd be surprised how strong sun can be further north. You can get sunburns in Siberia in the middle of winter IF there are no clouds.
When I visited there in 1993, they played music at double speed so people would eat faster and leave.
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.
Because they tried to make it healthy. If I wanted healthy food I wouldn't be a McDonalds to begin with. The fries will never be the same. Steak and Shake still has good old fashion unhealthy french fries.
nothing tastes the same anymore, the governments are fucking up everything we eat, spraying everything in the fields with poison, injecting all the animals with steroids, and feeding pigs food containing stricannine to keep the fat off to stop us enjoying meat cooked in its own juices .
logical, they use plastic in it, you can keep them fresh for years, see in https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-2926672/Man-buys-McDonald-s-burger-fries-2009-no-signs-decomposing.html
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!
Or 35.24 Fahrenheit
that was said about the summer queues , not January
made further investigations. Turned out, in Moscow 1990 winter, the very sun melted
They didn't specify what was melting!
:)))) It certainly wasn't melting no Russians!
This came after the statement "Then Summer came". So yea. Sun can be very hot in Moscow in Summer
But the photos don't support that.
"The summer came but the lines just kept growing. People from other cities were flocking the restaurant just for a single hamburger." The restaurant became more and more famous over the months.
In Russia is really cold for most of the year, so when the temperature is up to zero celsium, that could be realy warm for human body... something like when you are in the hot shower, and the you go outside, and feel cold even is there is normal room tempature.
It says "The summer came but the lines just kept growing. " So that was referring to when it was summer
Melting sun or not standing in line for hours to eat macdonalds was a mistake.
It says that days were passing but queues were not getting smaller. So maybe queues stayed until summer:D
You'd be surprised how strong sun can be further north. You can get sunburns in Siberia in the middle of winter IF there are no clouds.
When I visited there in 1993, they played music at double speed so people would eat faster and leave.
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.
Because they tried to make it healthy. If I wanted healthy food I wouldn't be a McDonalds to begin with. The fries will never be the same. Steak and Shake still has good old fashion unhealthy french fries.
nothing tastes the same anymore, the governments are fucking up everything we eat, spraying everything in the fields with poison, injecting all the animals with steroids, and feeding pigs food containing stricannine to keep the fat off to stop us enjoying meat cooked in its own juices .
logical, they use plastic in it, you can keep them fresh for years, see in https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-2926672/Man-buys-McDonald-s-burger-fries-2009-no-signs-decomposing.html