Ryumochnye (entry)

Categories / Population/Urban Living
RYUMOCHNYE, drinking establishments, appeared in St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century, meant for guests not looking for a long meal. A glass of vodka was offered with snacks such as sandwich with caviar, fillets, and sausages; also the guest of a ryumochnaya could read a newspaper and smoke a cigarette. When World War I of 1914-18 broke out, Ryumochnye were abolished, but were revived in Leningrad in the 1960s as a reaction to complaints of the citizens who demanded to protect children playgrounds, parks and yards from people drinking outside. A shot of vodka (50 g) cost 50 kopecks (while a 0.5 litre bottle of vodka cost 2 Roubles 87 kopecks) and was accompanied by a sandwich with an egg or sprats. There were no seats in ryumochnye, customers stood at high tables. The most popular ryumochnye were located at 23 Ryleeva Street, 43 Mokhovaya Street, 46 on the First Line of the Vasilievsky Island. The ryumochnye didn't proliferate in Russia and stayed exclusively "Leningrad phenomenon". In the mid-1980s, at the beginning of Perestroika, in the course of the campaign on struggling for teetotal system all ryumochnye were abolished. A few ryumochnye were opened in St. Petersburg in the 1990s.

I. A. Bogdanov, Y.N. Kruzhnov. 1st Line of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 46
Mokhovaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 43
Ryleeva St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 23