Brian ---- I can't stand that meat jello thing they serve cold either. But Kroshka Kartoshka (fast food chain serving baked potatoes with a variety of toppings) is Da Bomb.
I haven't read the book, but I haven't heard that the author was alluding to Mussolini. (The book is up on porn charges -- porn is illegal in Russia -- because it has a love scene between Stalin and Brezhnev.)