Soviets Prep for Own Big Mac Attack

Five Soviets are holed up in a western Chicago suburb collecting all sorts of delectable corporate secrets. No one is trying to stop them. In fact, the secrets are being served up faster than French fries at a drive-thru.

“There aren’t enough suitcases,” said Mikhail Shelesnov, 33, to carry back all he has learned.

Soon the group will return to Moscow to open the first McDonald’s restaurant in the Soviet Union sometime after Jan. 1, an event seen as a palatable symbol of improved U.S.-Soviet relations. Up to 15,000 customers a day are expected at the golden arches in Puskin Square in the heart of Moscow, which will make the Moscow restaurant the largest McDonald’s in the world.

“It’s the same as flying to the moon,” said Alexander Egorov, 38, the deputy general director of Moscow-McDonald’s, about his enrollment at McDonald’s Hamburger University, the chain’s school for restaurant managers. “Up to now it has been an impossibility.”

It took 13 years of negotiations, which started when George A. Cohon, president of McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited, bumped into 20 Soviet officials attending the Montreal Olympics in 1976. He invited them in for a burger that they were not going to forget.

“When we first started, we called it hamburger diplomacy,” said Peter Beresford, vice president of McDonald’s of Canada.

The talks picked up speed after the introduction of glasnost and perestroika by Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and the rush of American-Soviet exchanges.

Joining Egorov and Shelesnov in their two-week course in “Advanced Operations” at Hamburger University are Khamzat Khazbulatov, Georgij Smoleevskij, Vladimir Zhurakovskij and a Soviet interpreter. They are all at the top of their class, and are already company men, spouting McDonald’s slogans and enthusiasm with the best American franchisee.

The five will work for a joint venture, 51% owned by the city of Moscow and 49% by McDonald’s of Canada.

McDonald’s is taking no chances on the fast food flavor. The company is growing its own brand of potato, the Russet Burbank, in the Soviet Union. The first Russian harvest will be put to the test this week. And, to ensure uniform quality, McDonald’s built a 100,000-square-foot plant on the edge of the city where every ingredient will be processed.

But will the Russians appreciate the Western fare? “McDonald’s cuisine has conquered over 50 countries in the world, why wouldn’t it catch on in the Soviet Union?” replied Smoleevskij, 29, who has spent 10 years in public catering.

There are a few things everyone hopes will remain true to Soviet form, like queueing up to purchase goods.

“Our problem is that there is going to be only one restaurant right now. Not everyone will be able to eat there everyday!” Shelesnov said with barely contained excitement.

Moscow-McDonald’s has plans for 20 McDonald’s restaurants to be scattered along the Moscow streets. The first, which will seat up to 900 diners, will accept only rubles. No price list has been set yet, but the hamburgers are expected to be more expensive than in the U.S. The second will require hard currency, an effort by the Soviets to capture tourist business.

The third will be a cooperative where several people will share in the ownership and operation of a McDonald’s restaurant. Franchises--a new economic possibility for Soviets--make up approximately 75% of all McDonald’s restaurants around the world.

The idea of having his own franchise causes Shelesnov to gaze upward with hope. “Maybe,” he considers, “in the future.”