EVERY
IN MOSCOW
On January 31, 1990, the first Soviet McDonalds opened in Moscow. For political reasons, McDonald’s Canada was responsible for this opening, with little input from the U.S. parent company; a wall display within the restaurant shows the Canadian and Soviet flags. To overcome Soviet supply problems, the company created its own supply chain, including farms, within the USSR. For the average Russian customer, however, visiting the restaurant was less a political statement than an opportunity to enjoy a small pleasure in a country still reeling from disastrous economic problems and internal political turmoil. People queued for more than six hours and the restaurant served more than 30,000 people on its opening day. The arrival of McDonald’s in Moscow was a small but certain sign that change was on the horizon. In fact, less than two years later, the Soviet Union ceased to exist as a nation.
A culmination
of historical events took place. Former states such as Ukraine, Chechnya and Lithuania declared independence. Mikhail Gorbachev resigns in 1991, shortly after a failed coup on his presidency. As an American newsman reported, the first Russian McDonald’s customers “had seen the future, and it works, at least as far as their digestive tract.” On January 31, 2012, exactly 22 years later, there are 102 restaurants operating within the greater Moscow area. This document shows all of them in their surroundings, not only supplying a context for the living conditions and modernization of the whole capital, but also providing insight in the different architecture and environment. As homogeneous as its food can be around the world, the more diverse are the places facilitating it. Photo’s were made using Yandex, the biggest search engine in Russia. Yandex is using the same technology as Google’s Streetview, except without the face- and licenseplate blurring. The places that are being photographed are mostly in and around Russia’s biggest cities, and are growing steadily each day, providing a new online world for the photographer to explore and linger in.
January 31th, 1990, Photo: AP
Š Diederick Overbeke 2012