In January 1990, the Soviet Union's first McDonald's opened at Moscow's Pushkin Square. Crowds outside the restaurant became an enduring image of a society in transition. The wait was not simply for a hamburger: it offered a first encounter with a kind of service, branding, and commercial spectacle unfamiliar to many customers.
It is tempting to describe everyone in line as yearning for the West. That would flatten a much more varied crowd. Some may have been curious about the food; others about the enormous new restaurant or the excitement of being present on opening day. Waiting for goods was already familiar in Soviet life, but this queue was driven by novelty as well as the wider economy.
At the end of the line stood an ordinary meal. That is precisely what makes the episode revealing. Food that counts as routine in one place can become a marker of historical change in another. A queue measures not only the distance to a counter but also the distance between everyday worlds.
Source check: Contemporary reporting dated 31 January 1990 directly records customers queuing on the opening day of Moscow's first McDonald's.