One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap For Capitalism: 30th Anniversary of First McDonald's in USSR

The grand opening of the first fast food restaurant saw people wearing traditional Russian clothes while playing Slavic instruments such as accordions and treshchotkas (idiophone percussion instrument) and was widely covered by local media.

According to estimates, some 30,000 people gathered that day to take part in the beginning of a new era in Soviet gastronomic preferences. A fun fact: at the time, the McDonald's logo had a small Soviet flag placed beneath the letter “M”.

Check out this gallery to see, without exaggeration, this remarkable day at the end of the Soviet era!

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Wednesday 31 January 1990, a file photo, hundreds of people lined up around the first McDonald's restaurant in the Soviet Union on Moscow's Pushkin Square on its opening day.

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Opening ceremony of the first McDonald's in the USSR.

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Opening ceremony of the first McDonald's in the USSR.

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People queueing on Pushkinskaya Square in front of the first McDonald’s to open in Moscow.

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McDonald's provided free meals for children at one of Moscow's orphanages, who then became the first visitors of the newly opened restaurant in Moscow.

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McDonald's employees waiting for customers.

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An elderly Soviet woman, or "babushka", eats a McDonald's hamburger in Moscow, 31 January 1990. Hundreds of people crowded around the first McDonald's on its opening day, 14 years after McDonald's Canada first suggested selling hamburgers in the Soviet Union.

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People waiting near McDonald's during the opening ceremony of the first restaurant in the USSR.

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One of the first McDonald's visitors holding a Big Mac in the hand.

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The so-called European seating area of the first McDonald's in the USSR with a replica of the Eiffel Tower in the centre.

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Young Muscovites check out a new flavour sensation in the Soviet Union: hamburgers and soft drinks in Moscow on 31 January 1990.

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Vladimir Malushkov (left), head and chairman of the board of directors of the joint USSR-Canadian office of McDonald's and George Cohon (right), founder and senior chairman of the joint USSR-Canadian office of McDonald's.

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People queueing on Pushkinskaya Square in front of the first McDonald’s to open in Moscow.

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A queue with hundreds of people around the first McDonald's restaurant in the Soviet Union at Moscow's Pushkin Square on its opening day.

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One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Capitalism: 30th Anniversary of First McDonald's in USSR