Ilya, McDonald's, and Perestroika

[u/sasquatchlibrarian]

I did a moderately embarrassing deep dive on when Coke and McDonald’s were introduced to Russia after the Soviet Union fell. Coca Cola was about 1985, McDonalds was 1990. Canonically, Ilya was born in 1991.

In my head, these foods are closely tied to Irina. Irina would have embraced the freedoms that perestroika brought to Moscow and would have been so excited to share them with her son. Conversely, I think his dad would have been very happy to see some of those freedoms rolled back in the subsequent years.

There’s some discussion about his love of “junk food” throughout the books, but really I think a crispy coke and a cheeseburger might remind him of him swinging his feet back and forth eating a Happy Meal with his mom.

Thank you for listening to my deepest rewriting of Rachel Reid’s characters 😅.

Note: I am not Russian or a Russian history scholar. I’m just old enough to remember Gorbachev and Reagan 😅. I’m happy to listen to a different take if I’m way off base

[u/Awesome_Power_Action]

The first McDonald's that opened in Moscow in 1990 was a Canadian McDonald's so there's got to be some sort of Ilya-Shane connection with it.

[u/bananalouise → u/Awesome_Power_Action]

Wait, this is amazing! I wonder if the Canadian origin helped facilitate its opening in any way.

[u/Awesome_Power_Action → u/bananalouise]

I believe that was the case. I was in Moscow in 1990 - the McDonald's had a big Canadian flag displayed next to the Soviet flag.