About Food in USSR
The first kitchen-factory appeared in 1925. The menu was varied, and the price was quite inexpensive. For example, vegetable salad — 3 kopecks, fish/pork — 1 ruble 50 kopecks, pastries — 25 kopecks. An orchestra played in the cafe hall. In specially designated rooms one could read books, newspapers and magazines, play chess, checkers.
“Down with kitchen slavery!”
New posters appeared and became popular. They were addressed to women to make them work.
At that time, no one wanted to lose weight, everyone ate plenty. Food was often tasteless, so that Soviet people had the strength to build and create.
A well-known nutritionist at the time claimed that delicious food was a bourgeois prejudice. The main thing is that it must be useful: not spicy, not fried, but “calm” — boiled, stewed, with enough carbohydrates, fats and calories.
However, in the end, the war with the stoves, pots and pans was lost. Tired and hungry people had to go somewhere after work, so they started to cook themselves at their own small kitchens.
Food industry in USSR in the 30s.
Stalin announced: “Life has become better, comrades. Life has become more fun. «No more food cards in USSR, shops were full of products. People no longer ate in order to get enough, but also to enjoy themselves. Like before the Revolution.
The meat industry developed. Before World War II, 125 varieties of sausage were produced in the USSR, it was even prescribed to patients as a medicine.
In the mid-1930s, up to 19 varieties of live fish were sold in the cities.
How did such abundance become possible? It’s simple — Stalin said to improve the situation in trade.
Instead of cooking women were advised to go to the shops. There they were able to buy cakes, rolls, pancakes, dumplings, cutlets.
America’s influence
Soviet leaders turned to the best practices of other countries to improve food industry in USSR. In 1936, Mikoyan (the Commissar of industry) went on a two-month business trip to the United States to learn the food system there. What he saw — food factories, shops with a wide range of goods, fast-food enterprises — amazed the Commissar.
Mikoyan wanted to introduce a lot into the USSR, but not everything was successful. He called on Stalin to establish production of refrigerators for the country. However, the leader objected because of long winters. As a result, mass production of “refrigerated cabinets” began in the USSR in the early 1950s.
However, much American things had found application in the Soviet Union. The production of frozen foods and soft drinks began. The production of various canned goods, which were extremely necessary for builders, military, geologists, and polar explorers, began.
Mikoyan brought ice cream production technology from America. Waffle cups and ice cream had become a favorite delicacy of millions of Soviet people.
In conclusion, there is a funny fact. “In America, there is good food for mass consumption, the same as our sausages,” Mikoyan said. “These are the so-called hamburgers — hot cutlets …” The people’s commissar decided to introduce them into Soviet life. In the late 1930s, in Moscow appeared hot cutlets, «packed» in a bun. But then they disappeared somewhere. These were the predecessors of the well-known hamburgers that came to us in the 90s of the last century.
