What is especially interesting is that the McDonald’s restaurant opened while Moscow was still the capital of the USSR.
The first McDonald’s restaurant was opened in Moscow on this day in 1990. This was an important event since Moscow was at that time still the capital of the Soviet Union. In fact, the newly-opened McDonald’s was the largest in the world at the time, and became a sensation among the Soviet populace. People allegedly waited in line for up to several hours. The restaurant accepted Soviet rubles.
In order to avoid a confrontation between the USSR and the USA, most of the logistics for the opening of the McDonald’s in Moscow came from Canada rather than the USA. The Moscow restaurant was located at Pushkin Square, around 15 minutes walking from the famous Kremlin and Red Square.
