1990- The First McDonald’s Opens in the Soviet Union

On January 31, 1990, the first McDonald’s opens in Moscow.  An American journalist at the McDonald’s reported the customers seemed amazed at the “simple sight of polite shop workers…in this nation of commercial boorishness.” A Soviet journalist stated that the restaurant was “the expression of America’s rationalism and pragmatism toward food.” and that the “contrast with our own unrealized pretensions is both sad and challenging.”

Two years later, the Soviet Union was no longer a nation and Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as leader of the country. Many Soviet Republics declared their independence. The fast-food restaurant was a small but definite sign that things were changing in the Soviet Union.

(Taken from: www.history.com)