Until the New Year 2021, nothing at all and the outgoing year 2020 was one of the hardest in our life. How we will spend it and meet a new one is still unknown.
But what the tables were like in the difficult Soviet times and how much the food cost then, we will analyze today in the article.
It seems that in the 70s and 80s there was always “Soviet Champagne”, “Olivier” and tangerines on the tables.
But do you remember how much those festive delicacies cost during the Soviet deficit years?
My childhood just happened at that time, which means I can say with a clear conscience that I remember tangerines for sure and I still remember how hard it was for my parents to get all the treats.
Products for the New Year's table were not bought then. They got them!
There was always a shortage in one form or another in the Soviet Union, which means that there was a demand for ways to get something tasty and original.
The rumor that tangerines or sausages were “thrown out” in the supermarket spread at the speed of sound. Each had his own person in the trade, who helped to get that delicious food inaccessible on ordinary days.
Therefore, preparations for the New Year began in advance: the hostesses already in October began to think about where to get champagne, green peas for a salad or good sweets.
Another obstacle in that pre-New Year's quest "Collect food for the New Year's table" was... huge queues.
We often complain and get angry when we have to stand at the checkout in Magnet or Pyaterochka. But to the current pandemonium, oh, how far is it from the Soviet stands in stores.
Remember how once it was necessary to stand separately for sausage, then for cheese and also for canned food. And then all the customers lined up in a common line at the checkout - to punch their goods and return with a check to pick up the coveted bag in the right department. That is also choreography.
And finally - look into the wine department, where, as a rule, there was already a cash register.
The Soviet man was tempered by adversity, deficits and was ready for the blows of fate like the announcements “We don’t give more than two in one hand ...”. People sighed, carried the booty home and prepared for new achievements, since the journey to the shopping hell had to be repeated one more time or even more than one. Or take a friend with you.
But not everything was as bad as it seems at first glance. In the lives of many Soviet people there was such a magic word as "order". We were lucky, my mother worked in a huge Soviet construction company as an accountant and she was sold a whole set of New Year's products, like an employee at the place of work.
In general, the more prestigious the office, the richer those orders were.
In the 70-80s, the cost of the New Year's table fluctuated around 100-150 rubles. Imagine a whole salary for those times! We also spend a lot on the festive table now, but then ?!
A modest Soviet New Year's banquet is not only a couple of salads and champagne. Although they cost a pretty penny. If it was possible to get canned pineapples or real Finnish cervelat, then the figure of 100 rubles for the festive table grew noticeably.
Therefore, most often they gathered in large companies of relatives or colleagues - the celebration was not so noticeably hitting the pocket of an ordinary citizen.
To buy meat for him, one had to go to the market to a friend, otherwise they would be weighed or sold substandard. The price of good beef could go up to 5 rubles. per kilo, pork is slightly cheaper - 3.5 rubles.
Our mothers were helped out by a chicken, the same one with terrible paws, but in the 80s it suddenly became a terrible deficit.
At 5 rubles. a cervelat stick could easily have done. But then Finnish was considered the most chic. Even if someone had the opportunity and their own person in the sausage department, then for cutting they took boiled pork for 4 rubles and cheese. Here you could find cheese and for 3 rubles.
A real find for the New Year's table is canned fish. Without them, the legendary Mimosa salad would never have been born.
By the way, speaking of salads - that's what one could not do without on the night of 31st to 1st, it was without them. And even now, little has changed about New Year's salads. And then, at all, the salad was all over the head.
First, the Olivier salad. Each Soviet housewife had her own special recipe, which contained universal ingredients. Boiled sausage for 2.20-2.60 rubles, a jar of mayonnaise with a blue lid 33 kopecks, eggs - more than a ruble for a dozen, a tin of canned green peas at 39 kopecks.
In general, the salad was not so cheap, but you could cut a whole bowl and eat it all night, and then another hungover on January 1.
Another obligatory element of the Soviet New Year's program is the Herring under a Fur Coat salad. Herring was on sale, but cheaper than 1.30 rubles. you will not find.
It's impossible to imagine the New Year without tangerines. Especially in Soviet times. This is the very smell of the New Year!
Because during the rest of the year tangerines were not on sale. Generally!
Only in December were tons of orange fruits “thrown out” on Soviet counters. The price of pleasure is from 1.20 rubles, but it could be twice as much.
Was there caviar? Yes, gorgeous, of course, but that was also the case. By the 80s, it turned out to be a terrible deficit, and if it was possible to snatch the coveted tiny jar, mothers and grandmothers kept it for the holiday as a treasure. It cost 4 rubles per hundred grams of black and was a little cheaper than red.
It was then that Soviet food technologists invented artificial caviar, but it did not gain popularity among the people. People were afraid of her, there were even rumors that they were making her from the eyes of sprat, although in fact herring oil was used.
And what is the New Year without champagne? The main drink of those times, of course, was "Soviet Champagne". The bottle cost 3.67 rubles. Also, a bottle of Moldovan wine (cheaper) or Georgian (more expensive) wine was put to it.
The chiefs had the Three Stars cognac (from 4.5 rubles, it is better to take the one that is twice as expensive, the holiday is the same). Well, what about without her, dear, without vodka. Every Soviet person had a bottle of "little white" on the New Year's table.
Since those times, many people have been hard pressed into the memory of the figure of 3.62 rubles. per bottle, and in the 80s, prices for half a liter added even more.
This was the Soviet festive New Year's banquet, as I and my family remember it.
We all experienced this and will survive now. Take care of yourself!
Good luck to you! AND... holiday greetings!
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