What the USSR elite ate: the economy was not for everyone

It's no secret that during the Soviet era, ordinary citizens experienced serious food shortages. In some places, people had to stand in kilometer-long lines in the hope of buying a coveted piece of meat.

At the same time, the top officials of the Soviet Union did not even think about this problem, because they always had elite food on their tables, by the standards of those times. FoodOboz tells what exactly the top of the USSR ate while citizens were standing in lines.

It turns out that even in times of total food shortages in the USSR, one could find separate greenhouses and fields where organic vegetables and cereals were grown. In addition, many factories had special closed workshops where only elite products were made.

To ensure that the Soviet elite did not go hungry, there was a special food catalog. A member of the Politburo could call and order the food they needed. Interestingly, only family members had the right to place orders, and it was impossible to entrust this task to a domestic worker.

Most often, the list of products ordered looked like this: a kilogram of veal, milk sausages, candy, a few sticks of sausage, a jar of caviar, cognac, or Georgian wine. You could also order tangerines or pineapples. Interestingly, all these products could be purchased for less than the market price. For example, in the entire USSR, the cost of one kilogram of meat was 1.9 rubles, but when purchased through a catalog, the product cost only 1.2 rubles.