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Film Review: I am Cuba [Soy Cuba]

For a dash back into the realm of communist block propaganda tinged with a snobby capitalist ascetic, check out the film I am Cuba [Soy Cuba].

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Archives, Countries, Featured, Work

My Father The Spy

In 1979, I lived in Berlin. In the middle of the night my father would open the door to two large men. They always drove a camouflaged car, which in the winter was white to match the snow.

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Featured, Food

When the Big Mac Went East

In 1990 McDonalds got a permission from the Communist Party of Soviet Union to open its first restaurant in Soviet Russia in Pushkin Square, Moscow. It was not only the first McDonalds, but generally the first fast food place in Russia ever. Everyone wanted to visit this ‘pearl of capitalism’, so there were literally mile-long queues of diners. With 27 cash registers and seating 700, Moscow-McDonald’s was for a long time one of the brand’s busiest branches in the world.

According to information from the time, the expansion of McDonald’s Canada to Russia was accomplished after thirteen years of difficult negotiations and an investment of $50 million. What’s more, profits were split 50-50 between the company and the Russian government. Business was conducted entirely in Russian rubles that were nearly worthless outside the country, so to take any profit out of Russia McDonald’s would have had to buy Russian products with rubles and then export them to Europe or North America for sale. In fact, the company spent the rubles to buy farmland and put up office towers, a distribution center and a factory in the Moscow suburbs. In 1993, the company built its first office building, just two blocks from the Kremlin and tenants like Coca-Cola and Upjohn moved in.

According to a publication called The Agribusiness Examiner:

‘McDonald’s here [in Russia] has been able to avoid some problems that have troubled it in the West. The “Super Size Me” controversy, and accusations that fast-food chains like McDonald’s promote obesity, are not issues for Russians, some of whom demand mayonnaise with 40% fat content. Nor does McDonald’s low pay seem to bother many here – Russian wages average $250 a month. Some even argue that McDonald’s is identified in the public mind with glasnost and perestroika, the policies of openness and restructuring under Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the final years of the Soviet Union.’

Do you remember McDonald’s-Moscow opening?

Images courtesy of  English Russia.com

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Archives, Everyday Life, Featured

Swingin’ 1960s Lithuania

Although taken 50 or so years ago, when Lithuania was part of Soviet Union, these photos look touchingly contemporary.

Republished with kind permission from English Russia.com

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• Ost German Nostalgia
• Film Review: I am Cuba [Soy Cuba]

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