The Blessings of Peace

Moscow's Gorky Street gastronome (luxury-priced delicatessen) laid in an extra 57 tons of groceries, 20 tons of candies, five tons of meat. Behind the counters stood additional clerks and cashiers. Outside, three abreast in the softly sifting snow, stood waiting customers in their thousands.

Just 18 days after Premier Stalin made his not-yet-fulfilled election promise to abolish rationing and lower food prices, Moscow announced price slashes as high as 60% in foodstuffs. The cuts applied only to the commercial gastronomes, where groceries are sold (at high mark ups) to supplement standard 'rations. Bread and cigarets fell 50%, sugar 33%, coffee 40%, meat 20%, vodka and wines 25%.

Muscovites flocked to buy. For days the stores were jammed with joking, jostling crowds. One gastronome upped its daily average of 15,000 customers to 60,000. Here was the first of the concrete blessings of peace.

Store directors did themselves proud too with a splurge of fancy displays. Windows and shelves were decked with Georgian grapefruit, imported bananas, chocolates wrapped in tinfoil, gaily-colored candy in ribbon-bound boxes. One big window held nothing but a pyramid of Libby's canned pineapple. But the crowds made mostly for the bread counters.

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