Word: gastronomers
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...from kiwi fruit to Tabasco sauce. The trouble is, prices are so high that the minimum monthly wage of about 15,000 rubles does not even cover the cost of a kilogram of high-quality smoked salami, which sells for more than 16,000 rubles in one downtown Moscow gastronom store...
...what ails the Soviet Union is Marxism, what will cure it is the introduction of market mechanisms. But the Soviet people are not prepared for that sort of shock. True, a free market will put more goods on the shelves of the gastronom, or grocery store, but with state subsidies removed, prices will rise. As Nikolai Petrakov, Gorbachev's top economic adviser, told the Rabochaya Tribuna (Worker's Tribune) last week, "People accept rationing coupons and standing in line -- especially during work time -- but not price increases." And the housewife can now vote for a parliamentary representative able to stand...
...Gastronom No. 1, an imposing three-story building on Gorky Street, Moscow's busy shopping thoroughfare, is no ordinary supermarket. Its vaulted interior boasts crystal chandeliers, inlaid marble and huge, gold-trimmed mirrors. Regular shoppers know it simply as "Yeliseyev's," after a Russian merchant who built the store in the 18th century. It is popular among foreigners, who consider it as awesome as some of the palace museums that were once the Czars' homes. It is equally appreciated by Muscovites, because it stocks such hard-to-find items as fresh fruit, vegetables and meat...
Noted one Western diplomat in Moscow: "Recent events around the country point to a resurgence of efforts to wipe out corruption." Meanwhile, the doors to Gastronom No. 1 were locked and barred and an ironically appropriate sign went up in the window. It read: CLOSED FOR REMODELING...
TASS, the Soviet news agency, showed no such reluctance in publicizing the fate of a Moscow store manager. Yuri Sokolov, former director of the Gastronom No. 1, Moscow's finest food store, was renowned for being able to supply his customers with such rare or rationed delicacies as caviar, smoked sturgeon, coffee and Indian tea. As caterer to the capital's elite, Sokolov lived in high style and had friends close to Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev...