When the fast-food chain first opened in Russia on January 31, 1990, it was hailed as a sign of thawing Cold War relations and crowds of Muscovites flocked to taste their first Big Mac.
The Big Mac In Moscow Turns 30
- By RFE/RL
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Huge crowds line up outside Moscow's first McDonald's on Pushkin Square when it opened on January 31, 1990.
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Muscovites were undeterred by the high prices at the new restaurant. Back in 1990, a Big Mac cost 3.50 rubles, more than a monthly bus pass. (The average monthly salary at the time was 150 rubles.)
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It wasn't all plain sailing for McDonald's in its early days in Russia. Here, Russian animal rights activists protest outside an outlet in 1992.
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Quality-control inspectors at a McDonald’s food-processing plant located in the Moscow suburb of Solntsevo scan a conveyor belt for poorly formed hamburger patties in 1994. Machinery at the plant cranked out 10,000 hamburger patties hourly from beef provided by eight local slaughterhouses.
