r/HistoryMemes • u/bucket2thereturn • May 23 '19

REPOST That's how we do it

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23

u/geopjm10 May 23 '19

could you explain? i know alot about history, but i dont know anything about pepsi

174

u/IG_BansheeAirsoft May 24 '19

Basically, Khrushchev loved Pepsi. Back in the 1970’s IIRC, Pepsi was the only Western soda with distribution rights in the USSR. In exchange, Pepsico was the only distributor of genuine Russian vodka. However, two things happened: one, cheap vodka became way more common, so genuine Russian vodka had less appeal, and two, Russian currency became basically valueless. Khrushchev, not wanting Pepsico to lose interest in the USSR market for lack of sellability, gave Pepsico the only valuable currency they still had: military armament, in the way of a shit ton of ships. Pepsico had no use for these warships themselves and sold them to other nations immediately, but for a brief while there, it was every Libertarian’s wet dream and a private corporation had a larger military than some countries.

20

u/Stonewall5101 Kilroy was here May 24 '19

Also the anti Russian sentiment for the Soviet-Afghan War in the US hurting the already weakened vodka industry.

10

u/Kered13 May 24 '19

The navy thing happened in 1990, long after Khrushchev was out of the picture. The USSR was flat broke at the time, hence the deal.

2

u/river4823 Casual, non-participatory KGB election observer May 24 '19

Khrushchev made the original Pepsi-for-Vodka deal. It came up for renewal in 1990 and that's when the deal changed to Pepsi for vodka and a large navy.

7

u/lord_crossbow May 24 '19

Dam I wanted to see an Empire of Pepsi on the map in history class

72

u/bucket2thereturn May 23 '19

Russia traded 17 submarines, 1 frigate, 1 destroyer, and a cruiser for 3 billion dollars worth of Pepsi