How they PARTIED in Moscow before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution (PHOTOS)
It wasn't just Moscow's sybarites who partied, but also merchants and the bohemian crowd. They'd have long, leisurely breakfasts at the ‘Hermitage’ and ‘Slavic Bazaar’ restaurants and, after evening theater performances or outings to the countryside, they'd head to ‘Yar’ for dinner, which was open until the early hours. This establishment in the Moscow suburbs was the first to invite Gypsy choirs in the 1860s; they were banned from performing in the city, so audiences eagerly flocked there to listen to soulful and rousing hits. This "little world of beautiful debauchery", featuring "electricity, an orchestra and uninhibited women with bold glances and unbridled conversation" lured in anyone who had even a little money to spare, but especially those who knew how and loved to throw it around.
Champagne was drunk not by the glass or bottle, but by the yardstick. The sparkling wine was served on a square yardstick (0.5-0.7 square meters): however many glasses it could hold, that’s how many were brought to the table. Moscow bon vivants created their own punches, adding decorative elements to the drink: as soon as the cocktail was finished, the glasses filled with jewels were handed out to local singers.
For fun, visitors would turn a grand piano into an aquarium: after filling it with champagne, they’d let sardines from a can “swim” around in it. Other guests, after rivers of sparkling wine and cognac, would want to unburden themselves. If a suitable conversation partner wasn't available (which, of course, was rare), they could always share their thoughts with the mirror in the study. Confessions scrawled on its walls held the revelations of many visitors: "I was here and squandered five hundred rubles" – "…isn't it shameful to take a heart and not give it back?" – "I was drunk here."
Ladies for dinner
Of course, such parties wouldn't have been complete without ladies. The highlight of the evening at one Moscow restaurant was a special dish, carried out by several waiters. In the center of the tray, surrounded by various appetizers, flowers and fruit, lay a naked woman. The "dish" was placed on the table and the revelers demanded champagne: they showered the beauty with money, doused her with wine and snacked on whatever was lying around her.
People went to the Omont Theater on Kamergersky Street for exotic dances: local performers did belly dancing, which was officially prohibited – for an additional fee, it could be performed in a private room.
Card game enthusiasts gathered in clubs and circles: fortunes were lost there overnight and huge sums were lost. Money flowed like a river: sometimes a random guest, brought along by a club member, was unable to pay his losses or simply ran away and t
hen the person who had invited him had to cover the debt. At the ‘English Club’, they played all night long: guests had no fear of a police raid, since the Governor-General was its honorary president and the Chief of Police was a regular patron. Leo Tolstoy once lost 1,000 rubles there to some officer and almost ended up blacklisted for non-payment: fortunately, an editor he knew came to his rescue. And in the club's "infernal" room, even before the abolition of serfdom, villages and estates were gambled away – peasants could change owners overnight.
Swimming with a sterlet
Moscow restaurants were prepared for virtually any turn of events and had price tags for even the most outrageous scenarios. For example, at ‘Yar’, it was perfectly legal to break a mirror with a bottle – for 100 rubles (approx. $1,700). Those who wanted to get into trouble (and get away with it) had to have 120 rubles (approx. $1,400) on hand – for that kind of money, you could smear a waiter with mustard.
You could blow a fortune at restaurants in a single night. Once, a group spent four hours pouring wine out of the second-floor windows – the waiters could barely keep up with bringing them the most expensive bottles. When it came time to pay the bill, the host of the party didn't flinch: for the fun of it, he shelled out 100,000 rubles (approximately 150 million rubles or $1.7 million in today's money).
In one of his 1885 essays, Anton Chekhov described the feasts held to celebrate St. Tatyana's Day, noting that, on that occasion, "everything was drunk except the Moskva River". Students at ‘Yar’ also recalled: "It was so much fun that one student, overcome with emotion, bathed in a reservoir where Natruskin sterlets swim."
Sometimes, however, the revelers' imaginations went further. For example, one day a group ordered a ‘krushon’ (a drink made from wine mixed with liqueur, champagne, cognac and fruit) for 1,000 rubles. The establishment was only prepared to make one for 300. So, the guests added… gold coins to it. Exactly the "missing" 700 rubles.
Moscow-Africa train
Parties sometimes ended in amusing and bizarre incidents. One group, having partied all night, celebrated their name day so well that they tried several restaurants before deciding to go on a hunting trip… to Africa. They were inspired to do so by the stories told by one of the guests. The next morning, the hapless would-be hunters found themselves on a train somewhere in the Oryol Province. Only a carefully written note with a detailed plan and route from Moscow to Africa, found in the coat pocket of one of them, helped them reconstruct the events.