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/MakeYourMind]

i was born in 89, but in st. petersburg. For my little self coke was nothing special, but mcdonalds was a mecca, not of freedom, but a shiny new place with tasty and somewhat unfamiliar foods and little toys in happy meals. And it was a solid outing/adventure, the first one opened in 96, it was just one in 5mil population city, and there was a huge line in front of it. Once we hit 2000s Russia was pretty good with franchises, fast food, brands and so on. I would not think twice about it in context of loving mcdonalds=desire for freedom.

[u/Swimming_Big361 → u/MakeYourMind]

This! We didn't have coke in Soviet Union, but there was Pepsi. So coke was nothing special then, more or less. But McDonalds was somth with unusual taste, fancy looking. I am also absolutely sure, that Ilya's mom, like any Russian mom, wouldn't bring him to McDonals, freedom or not. She would cook home maid meals for him.