A History Teacher Reacts | "Fast Food in the USSR: The History" by NFKRZ

[Music] hey youtube welcome back to another history teacher axe video of mr. Teri's that continued my search for historical knowledge found here on the Internet alright today's video should be fun one it is titled fast food in the USSR the history so what we're gonna be looking at here is I know this kind of happens later in the Soviet Union when you started to get some decentralization in government and and things like that with things like glass toast and perestroika and kind of the end of the USSR at the end and you saw the USSR adapt some Western corporate models kind of in a way like you see here with with McDonald's and it was an interesting kind of n part of the end of the Cold War as if you're seeing American consumerism penetrate into the Soviet Union it's pretty good indicator that the Cold War and what it was about is changing and maybe it's gonna be over here in a second so I'm interested to go into more of this and I'll try to add some thoughts because this whole process is actually part of some history curriculums and as part of the as part of kind of the end of the Cold War and the spread of American consumerism and culture through consumerism so I'm interested to look at this now the channel for this is called nfkrz and i don't believe i have seen anything from them so i don't know exactly what the style is but i love seeing a new channel so we'll go ahead and check this out now if you like this original video go down below and you'll see a link to the original video if you like this give it a like subscribe view all that kind of stuff so you can support those guys as there's so many great content creators here on the internet if you haven't sub to my channel definitely do that hit the notifications you can come hang out with us and let's go ahead get started the fast food in the USSR what you're looking at right now is the line on the opening day of the second McDonald's restaurants in the Soviet Union line crossed around several city blocks creating a few traffic jams and lessen at least a good 10 hours On January 30 okay let's go ahead and just consume what you just saw here if you're waiting in the line like that for anything let alone a cheap hamburger that clamor so much more than what that looks like on the surface 1990 right end of the Soviet Union right it's coming to a close here these people clamming for a very American thing a hamburger from the biggest chain in the world by the way shout out to the Soviet Union model of McDonald's where you got McDonald's of that he's still got Soviet Union flag coming out of there it is showing the shifts in I don't know what it is in culture that's happening globally in the Soviet Union ten-hour line to get a cheap American hamburger it's big deal to thirst 1990 over 30,000 people visited the first fast-food chain in Moscow to try the mysterious capitalist food known as the burger fast food is something that most of us take for granted it's always been that and it always will be for Russians and the Soviets however that has not been the case the Soviet Union was a restricted country hidden behind the so-called iron curtain no Western goods such as Iron Curtain the reference to that if you don't know is Winston Churchill not long after World War two accused Joseph Stalin Soviet creating an Iron Curtain in in Europe which was creating basically a a hard-line border of now communist nations now into Central Europe that Joseph Stalin had agreed would be able to get free elections and ended up being basically puppets of the Soviet Union causing us divided artificial it divided in Europe clothes vehicles and food products were allowed to enter the country only certain members of the Communist Party elites or celebrities could get the good goodies of capitalism's such as jeans Snickers bars and burgers borge Lars okay I the economy in eighties the Soviet Union was starting to be hard some people say a lot of that was due to their so much spending in trying to keep up with the space race in the nuclear arms race that the economy the the communist economy of the Soviet Union was only able to keep up with the Americans so they started to give more capitalistic type abilities in in private ownership and corporations and stuff like that still under very much a watchful guidance of the government but that was starting to happen and you can see some of the things that are starting to show up as these things that have had such mass success globally again like what Western clothing brands like you saw with Adidas or some Borg Lars and coca-cola as well the history of fast-food in the you know they say coke is probably the largest and widest spread brand of anything in the world because you can find coke in some of the deepest jungles most remote jungles in the in the world coca-cola is I believe the biggest just brand in the world it was a sour started out from an arguments between the then leader of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev and the US vice president at the time which was Richard Nixon in 1959 during a Soviet held exhibition in New York Nixon and a Pepsi executive Donald M Kendall offered the Soviet leader to try some Pepsi reportedly Khrushchev and Nixon got into a heated debate about which is better communism or capitalism during this arguments the Pepsi executive Donald M Kendall came over to Khrushchev and offered them a cup of Pepsi Khrushchev actually liked the strange black fizzy drink the Soviet citizens their fork and that was the beginning you get him to drink some Pepsi it just opens the crack now Makita Khrushchev did a process called de-stalinization which was stolen I mean inarguably was was a very hands-on totalitarian kind of type ruler and when he died few mourned in a lot of ways especially when it came to the influence of the government and Khrushchev began a de-stalinization process which is it kept of course that he's a hardcore communist Khrushchev but didn't think it the government had to be the way necessarily stalin did as that heart ruling quite that hard so you did see slow elements throughout all of the years of the soviet union of loosening up a bit from stone which really isn't saying much because when it comes down to control stalin is about on the head of a list of very short people but yeah start did the pepsi in them and then what became aware of what Cola was and pepsi saw this as an opportunity to branch out to soviet russia in 1972 PepsiCo has signed an agreements with the Soviet government to stop the sales of Cola in the USSR due to the Soviet ruble being completely useless as a currency on the global markets and having almost no real value outside of the USSR because it was a closed country a huge amount of Pepsi Cola syrup was exchanged for in equal amounts of Salish their vodka okay so you couldn't sell it to the Soviets cuz their money was worthless outside of Russia so yeah trade it so sell Pepsi and go back where the bottles markets and having almost no real value outside of the USSR because it was a closed country a huge amount of Pepsi Cola okay so you get the Soviet it's not translate to Pepsi I guess you can't you can't sell it so you just traded for the syrup was exchanged for an equal amounts of solution air vodka go for vodka and then I guess the idea would be that you would sell that vodka right you have to go through another step if you're gonna do any business with the Soviet Union cuz ya know their money and you can't use it anywhere yes seriously in order to get Pepsi on the Russian shelves the Soviets literally traded vodka for Cola this is this is really not doing anything good for the stereotypes about Russians of vodka is it well distillation evolved they're giving it up for Pepsi then ya became a big hit in the United States and so did Pepsi in the US our Pepsi's Cola syrup was exported from the United States to the USSR where was luckily mass-produced using the syrup and sold under the Pepsi Cola branding a decade later in 1989 the initial agreement of the Soviet governments with Pepsi was about to expire and the USSR needed even more soda what happened next is one of the most ridiculous and fascinating things of neighborhoods the Soviet government who literally traded seventeen submarines and three solid warships including the frigates a cruiser and a destroyer for three billion dollars worth of Pepsi yes serious why and a destroyer for three billion dollars worth of Pepsi but who yet the government who else has just warships going around for Pepsi seriously this man's that for brief moments in the 1980s PepsiCo became the sixth largest military in the world also kept okay who is pepper no but who on the Soviet side had this the government was doing that because that Pepsi had the six largest military in the world imagine if they use that Ike worth waging a war against coca-cola this is this is insane okay I just cannot comprehend this Pepsi ended up selling old the war ships for scrap to some revision of Swedish company the story gets really shady here I don't know honestly I didn't find any good sources about this so just trust me okay it gets really shady here I don't know honestly I didn't [ __ ] Pepsi also brand new Soviet oil tankers and leased them out or sold them in partnership with a Norwegian company they sold the fleet to a Swedish company for scrap recycling okay so these these the ships and stuff they did sucked they suck they were just used for recycling let's go back and get the whole context okay just cannot comprehend this Pepsi ended up selling all of the warships for scrap to some revision of Swedish company the story gets really shady here I don't know honestly I didn't find any good sources about this so just trust me on this and after this insane deal Donald M Kendall which was the CEO of Pepsi at the time famously said and that his company is the son of the Soviet Union faster than the US government's another fun fact is that Pepsi also apparently launched a big-ass Pepsi can into space near the Soviet the MIR space station in 1980s and it was like a means of advertisement back in the dayy 200 miles above the Earth's surface it was lights camera action as Pepsi Cola in conjunction with the Russian Mir Space Station began production on the first ever television commercial shot in space this is amazing all these news coming into the USSR all the Western stuff all of this was possible due to the last leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev who ruled the country from 1985 up to its demise in 1991 Gorbachev is famous for creating the idea of glass nest and perestroika this was a movement with the aim to reform the country's economy to westernize the Soviet Union removed the iron curtain and to battle censorship glasnost perestroika you probably learned about that five up to its demise in 1991 Gorbachev is famous for creating the idea of glossiness and perestroika you definitely should have learned of these terms in your history classes as these were policies that brought the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union basically it's it's opening up the government becoming more transparent okay and then also getting rid of some of the burek bureaucracy of that and some decentralization happening here and the idea with with Gorbachev was kind of like hey we can we can like modernize the country and reform the country and the government specifically and censorship policies and that kind of stuff while still keeping maybe the core spirit of communism but what what it kind of does too is it gives people a taste of a little more consumerism a little bit more personal freedoms in a lot of way and what ends up happening is rather than just being I guess satisfied with that the people are gonna clamor for more like oh this is what this is like you know what I mean to have more of these opportunities and that sort of thing and have more involvement and it was kind of band-aid you know what Gorbachev is putting on the Soviet Union when really it's it's it's kind of the beginning of the so putting a band-aid when the Soviet Union would have needed surgery to stay as a surgery and this consumerism is definitely a part of this this was a movement with the aim to reform the country's economy to westernize the Soviet Union removed the iron curtain and to battle censorship gurubhai Chavez the quite controversial figure in Russian politics some people praise him for promotes and liberal ideas in a totalitarian country while others claim that he sold the USSR out to the west column a traitor and blame him for the destruction of the so V by the way as some more evidence of this Gorbachev the people core economist Alan go ahead and look up Gorbachev's Pizza Hut commercial it's in Russian it's about Pizza Hut in in in Russia and it's an ad for them and he actually plays a little bit role in it and it's kind of funny check it out look up just Gorbachev Pizza Hut commercial check it out for sure I showed my classes if you need I really don't want to get into this because I don't want the comments to turn in a war zone okay so I'm just good as goodbye okay thank you my job is actually closely connected to the opening of the first Pizza Hut in the USSR Pizza Hut is owned by Pepsi so opening a branch in the Soviet Union was quite easy very bad sure of himself even appeared in an infamous Soviet Pizza Hut advertisements oh they're gonna show okay so this is what I was talking about maybe you don't have to go elsewhere I doubt they're gonna show the whole thing is it's like a minute and a half [Music] for you [Music] that the garbage off thank you at these Ziggy walnuts but I'm gonna make you better duck care like the openness it's got the old-school guy maybe like the older guy from that you know the earlier communist generation who lived through a lot of that stuff and then he got the young guy right because of him we have opportunity and by the way it's totally they felt about Gorbachev he was a very split figure just like they said some of yeah it depending on what side of you were then you own us well you just came your stubby list water even when the keys just kinda study the blood of AAA more love his heart I got my charlie sometimes nothing brings people together like a nice hot pizza from Pizza so you wonder if they're old-school people then calling him a sellout for that but I think if such one because it did summer summarizes his his leadership in a way guy like the new young people who want to like move forward and get away from the old Soviet stuff and then you got the old-school guys but pretty it's a pretty brilliant ad it really is but it's like hey we can all agree on pizza is great though or glad we got pizza yeah i mighta know that that was gonna be a yikes for me I'm sorry okay that's gonna be a yikes roommate the agreement to open the first McDonald's in the USSR was signed in 1988 but the first restaurant did not open until 1990 at the Pushkin Square Square in Moscow I've I should have been to this but you're just I mean think of the idea of this if this had happened even in Khrushchev Sears okay there's a McDonald's does anything represent American capitalism right more than McDonald's really I mean if you're gonna pick a brand that represents American consumerism and capitalism whatever lifestyle its McDonald's it probably yes I think you can make a case at least and you're sticking one of these right in downtown Moscow cold war is over nicholette McDonald's and you could see who won and who lost and now it looks nothing like it did back then but it's still pretty cool I guess so back then in 1990 on the first day of the opening of Madonna's over 30,000 people ate their burglar so this number still stays as an absolute worldwide record for the most people served in one day at a McDonald's even though the average salary of a Soviet worker was around 150 rubles back then and only one burger cost about 1.5 rubles for which you could buy like eight or nine loaves of bread people of Moscow still rushed in to try the new mysterious Western capitalist food it's amazing so I was wondering I was wondering a bit about how much it would cost like a regular person because I've been in McDonald McDonald's around the world in other countries and it's still cheap like in a lot of places I know in some parts of the world it's actually more like high-class it depends McDonald's business model chain is to whatever it fits because you know there's some place you might not be able to undercut their food right the food prices so make it a higher class thing or again go in somewhere where you need lower cheaper food and then you can undercut stuff and then it can be cheap so I've seen them do that model I was wondering if it was something that was cheaper expensive looks like on this at this time it's actually more a little bit more on the expensive in but not unrealistic right it's just like going out for like a meet like going out for like a semi nice meal you know even if it's fast food style okay I've seen Russia has a very interest in history new mysterious Western capitalist food kay I've seen Russia has a very interest in history as well he first opened up in Moscow in 1993 however it was not actually called Kentucky Fried Chicken the KFC company partnered with a Russian company called eros inter and the fast food chain opened up under the name rostov's in 1998 KFC and Pizza Hut both left Russia because the business was not profitable however both of them returned to the Russian markets in the year 2000 KFC was still known as rustics until 2005 when both companies decided to rename the brand 406 KFC finally only in 2011 KFC bought out the Russian branch and the KFC restaurants in Russia now have the original KFC brand name due to the chicken fast food chain being cold differently for holds it like that now have the original KFC brand name due to the chip who holds it like that everybody can fast food chain being cold differently for such a long time many people especially of the older generation still refer to KFC as the rostov's subway first on success on eat at Ross chips how about you guys this this video is making me really hungry fully tried come into Russia in 1994 but they only managed to do so in 2004 right now subway has the biggest amount of restaurants around Russia compared to any other fast-food joints Burger King was quite late to the party ningún America Subway's are big because it's actually very low cost overhead for franchising comparable to like McDonald's it's not even close to it's way cheaper to open like a subway people people like it right the only opening up its first restaurant in Moscow January 2010 wait do we got we got Russian Colonel Sanders let's see only opening up its first restaurant in Moscow in January 2010 alright what do we need to name the Russian Colonel Sanders we need a is it just like comrade Sanders or something maybe put your ideas what do we need to call the Russian Colonel Sanders however today Burger King is perhaps the fastest growing fast food chain in all of Russia due to the company's aggressive marketing which often comes off very cringe to be honest and the fast food chains great price in policy the American fast food chain Wendy's also tried to make it to Russia the first joint was opened up in Moscow in 2011 however Wendy's couldn't compete with the likes of McDonald's Burger King and KFC and in 2014 Wendy's left Russia and closed all of its restaurants it's a real shame because I never got to try it because I only went to Moscow for the first time as 2015 said that I this guy is Russian huh didn't get to eat spicy goodness like a puss that's for change that our presence in Russia that needs two dimensions our Domino's Shake Shack Carl's jr. Hesburgh ur Dunkin donut burger 2 J Fridays and Papa John's ok unfortunately Russia has no Taco Bell Popeyes in and out chick-fil-a Chipotle of five guys those are yeah those brands aren't big enough yet I cry every time in the late 90s Russians started creating their own fast-food joints for example the cross Kokoschka chain which the wait let's just look and see what they got here they got like big potato sandwiches as various dishes based on potatoes with different toppings it was first opened and actually that sounds pretty good like got like a like a potato restaurant like a good baked potato restaurant I could do that I can do that 1998 and is still active today another successful Russian fast food chain is TD mock which tells the traditional Russian dish known as blini similar to crepes with various fillings and toppings fun facts today mark actually even had a number of restaurants in New York however they are no longer in business in the United States the biggest and currently fastest growing Russian fast food chain is dodo pizza it was opened up in 2011 and right now it's like the biggest pizzeria in all of Russia and it's actually pretty good apparently also recently they opened up a few joins in the United States and in China which is pretty crazy if you think about it and you know it's great pizza it's like the my go-to basically at parties this is not a paid advertised set Peter great Vince I'm just saying okay I just say it's probably just because my city doesn't even have Pizza Hut if he had Pizza Hut brah I'd be on that I'd be on that so I hope you guys enjoy this little history lesson on how fast food made its way into the Soviet Union and Russia wait look at the roof look at that so just a design it's kinda interesting guys enjoy this little history lesson on how fast-food made its way into the Soviet Union and Russia I personally find these stories very entertaining I mean Jesus Christ which other country leader ever took part in a [ __ ] Pizza Hut commercial I mean we literally made Pepsi the sixth the biggest military in the world once it's absolutely ridiculous anyway if you guys did enjoy this video please make sure just smash the like button on it and subscribe if you want to see more videos like this I'm trying to branch out a little more and do some sa type videos if you guys want to support me as well make sure to check out my patreon down in the description that'll be greatly appreciated and yeah thank you guys so much watching this video and I will see you guys in the next one yeah alright cool this that was awesome I really like that a lot to hear some more the history nude just but mostly what I had heard about this kind of thing was in the context of the of the Cold War there's actually a term in our curriculum that's it's called mcdonaldization in the AP curriculum that it's like it's like the spread of American culture through businesses like the spreading of American businesses and thereby spreading American culture through American brands they actually kind of call it mcdonaldization because McDonald's was kind of the first of that to really penetrate into these other countries that the United States was culturally at war with right like the Soviet Union is McDonald's kind of breaking that in actually I mean really you should go to Pepsi you'd think about it in a lot of ways there but nothing had the effect I mean you saw build like McDonald's and it's just that it's just the fact that like okay you saw that that opening day McDonald's were people waiting 10 hours it's not because the food is just so good it's worth waiting for 10 hours for like that's not the thing nobody would do that it's it's it's it's it's like this like it's it's the fad thing I remember like if you guys have you ever had anything like this maybe not 10 hours but like an in-n-out burger is now making its way into your state or something like that you ever had anything like that Popeyes like some of the ones that are really starting to grow a little bit more like an American nationally and always like when those kind of things open you'll see that people want to be a part of the hype right if you want to be the heart because the hype because they want to be a part of the cool progressive cultural thing that's happening and in 1990 that's what that was in the Soviet Union to people the cool progressive thing was some of this again like the like American culture that was that was going on there and you can see the shift of the population happening as a result of this and adopting these because it's more than just the food it's about the experience and they're people like the idea of like being on the cutting edge of the new progressive cultural trend people love that like yeah I was there on opening day of McDonald's oh we haven't heard of McDonald's where where have you been you know what I mean that's what a lot of that would have been and it's it's animat it's it's an amazing part of history really interesting part of history especially here at the context of the Cold War and it's not as you know you don't get that kind of hype today when a new brand comes in nearly as much but I love anything's gonna top that with with McDonald's of something new entering a place and becoming already before it even launches having this like hype anticipation yeah you know I think this McDonald's opening in Moscow is about the biggest I can think of you have any other things that are like that of this type of anticipation and response early on by something new coming into your community Oh talk about it let me know in the comments of what you thought there so all right well this was great and yeah actually it has a lot of historical value especially when you're talking about that early bar the late the late cold war happening there so it's pretty cool for something you can talk about is evidence of the Cold War and things like that so all right very very very cool really like this we'll see if this channels got some other stuff kind of like this cuz that could be very interesting very cool I don't know what else kind of what other kind of things they do but it was pretty awesome so I really like this alright if you like this link to it is down below make sure you click on it ok and you know if you like this just click on it even if it's just clicking on it give them the view that kind of thing sub to the channel give it a like it really helps the channels out and without those we don't have our channel here and being able to be able to discuss it and that kind of things and promote it so definitely make sure to do that if you would like to get involved in this conversation too about the stuff definitely join our discord server down below is a link to that you can go join that and the good 5,000 plus people that we have over there talking to all kinds of historical subjects label notifications click that bell so you can come hang out with us in live from ears and no one new videos come out and all that kind of stuff and thank you to everyone that's been supporting the channel a lot of ways patreon pledgers channel members that kind of thing thank you but thank you just for being here and being a part of the history community and making sure it's a prevalent part an important part here of this corner of the Internet all right with that we'll see you guys next time bye [Music] you

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 54,346

Keywords: react, history, ussr, soviet union

Id: ITl6A-0DKj8

Length: 28min 28sec (1708 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 09 2020