Soviet-era canteen opens at the Tartu County Agricultural Museum

The Estonian Agricultural Museum in Tartu County has opened a temporary exhibition that brings visitors into the world of Soviet-era canteen culture. The exhibition reflects the atmosphere of canteens in Soviet Estonia during 1950–1985.

The Estonian Agricultural Museum in Tartu County has opened a unique temporary exhibition to visitors that reconstructs the environment of a Soviet-era canteen. The exhibition space has been designed to convey the atmosphere characteristic of that era and the everyday life that prevailed in canteen culture.

Although long queues at the canteen counter are a historical memory, the interior and canteen counter have been set out as authentically as possible, reflecting the communal dining traditions of Soviet Estonia during 1950–1985. This was a period when public canteens played a significant role in the daily life of workers and collective farm members.

The exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to step back into history and become acquainted with the food culture and eating habits of that era, which are often only hearsay for today's generations. The Agricultural Museum has previously been known as a presenter of Estonian rural life and the history of agriculture, but this temporary exhibition adds a new dimension by addressing eating culture in a broader social context.