Funny (in hindsight) story. We're driving through the Czech countryside on the way to visit my in-laws. My mom in the back seat asks what a certain thing we see in very many fields of crops is for. My wife (born Czech) said she doesn't know, but when we get to her folks house we can ask her dad. My mom (bless her classic American tourist heart) announces, "No need. I know it must be something the Russians must have put in there."

My wife was seething for some hours and it still bugs her two decades later. I've known since my parents first came to visit me in Europe 30+ years ago that my mom is (in that sense) a hopeless American snob so I just ignore it so it doesn't constantly piss me off.

For the record we did ask the locals and it was not something the Russians introduced.