2. The Cold War period, which started after World War II and between the USA and the Soviet Union in order to become the world leader, witnessed many strange events and agreements afterwards. Especially at that time and afterwards, the Soviet Union, which was a completely closed box, was trying to be a self-sufficient country, not too close to western countries.
Today, we will talk about an event that emerged as a result of these strange agreements. Let’s take a look at how the US beverage company Pepsi entered the Soviet Union market and has the 6th largest submarine fleet and navy in the world. Then we’ll look at what Pepsi is doing with this navy. Don’t worry, the answer isn’t going to go “War on Coca-Cola”.
Pepsi’s arrival in the Soviet Union
In 1959, a fair was held for the Soviets to get to know American culture closely. US Vice President Richard Nixon also attended the event in Moscow, which was organized under the name of “America Promotion Fair”. Many US products were introduced to the Soviet people at this fair. One of these products was Pepsi. The Soviet leader of the time, Nikita Khrushchev, tasted Pepsi and did not like it very much. Although he did not like it very much at the time, Pepsi would enter Soviet territory a few years later and consolidate its position.
When the dates showed 1972, the head of Pepsi, Donald Kendall, met with the US President Nixon and began to look for ways to sell Pepsi to the Soviet Union. Nixon also convinced the Soviet Union after his negotiations. This huge country, however convinced, was still a closed market. For this reason, the outflow of the ruble; In short, it was forbidden to convert into dollars. In the first period, the solution was solved by exchanging Stolichnaya vodka produced under the control of the Soviet Union state. Pepsi bought vodka for the drinks it exported to the Soviets and sold it on the US market. This deal by Pepsi made them the first US product to be sold on the Soviet market.
Navy swap for Pepsi’s Coke
Things started to get interesting when it was 1989. In this process, the number of Pepsi’s factories in the Soviet Union increased to 20 and the volume of the company’s new deal in this country reached 3 billion dollars. This increase in payment was creating some payment problems. The main problem was that this payment could not be made with vodka. The Soviet Union switched to a new payment method at this point. There were a large number of military vehicles produced by the Soviet Union during the cold war period. At this point, very serious investments were made in the navy. After the Cold War, the Soviet Union, having difficulties in keeping them, decided to use the navy to pay off its debt to Pepsi. According to this payment, which we can describe as a full war fleet, the Soviet Union gave Pepsi 17 submarines, 1 cruiser, 1 frigate and 1 destroyer.
Pepsi, which is actually a beverage company, turned this navy into money by selling it to a recycling company in Sweden. Donald Kendall, the head of Pepsi at the time of this agreement, in a statement about this swap, targeting the United States, “We are disarming the Soviets faster than you!” he said.
Thanks to this strange event, Pepsi for a while had the 6th largest submarine fleet in the world for that period. Today we told you about Pepsi’s adventure in the Soviet Union. Do you want more content like this to come? You can share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
Source: 1, 2, 3, 4
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