Symbols of America

[peacetraveler22]

For the past few weeks, Ilya Varlamov has published posts incorporating photos from Moscow in the late 1980's - early 90's. I love these! Amazing to see how the country looked right before the collapse of the USSR. In today's post, I saw this photo from 1990. A massive queue to enter the first McDonald's in Moscow! I can't imagine such a scene, or how this fast food chain symbolized so much to people at that time. In 1990, I was 17. A senior in high school, getting ready to graduate and enter university, and closely following events overseas.

What other places, items and things did Soviet citizens associate with America before the collapse? My aunt visited Russia in the early 1980's, and she told me stories about locals asking her for bubble gum and wanting to buy her Levi's, straight off her body. This is no joke.

This is what makes Russia so fascinating to me - very rich and diverse history, constantly shifting and changing. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Not sure how most Russians feel about the current direction in which Russia is moving...I hope you feel for the better, because it's depressing and sad to live in a place where you feel absolutely no hope or prospect for the future. I have never once felt this way about my life in America...

Comments

[g-kar.livejournal.com]

Compared to standard Soviet canteen (and even restaurant) food, McD was quite tasty - and the food was/is FRESH.
Even now mant people prefer McD to other local fastfood because you won't get food poisoning :)

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

I haven't eaten at many Russian restaurants, only a few. Usually I'm cooking meals with my friend at his home in Moscow when I visit. :)

[g-kar.livejournal.com]

Back in USSR restaurants were MUCH worse :)

If we speak about now, I was comparing McD food safety mainly with cheap fast-food.

Have you ever had such poisoning?

[xpo-xpo-xpo.livejournal.com]

I ate much shawarma but I'm alive so far - and surely something like "Yolki-palki" is much safer than shawarma.

Re: Have you ever had such poisoning?

[g-kar.livejournal.com]

Nope, I based my comment not on personal experience, but on expert opinion: one of my friends worked in Rospotrebnadzor; another - in consumer/food-related TV program.

Myself, I prefer Teremok, but it's on the expensive end of fast-food segment.