That Time the Soviet Government Gave PepsiCo its Very Own Fleet of Warships

The unconventional deal was originally agreed to in December of 1989, but the lucrative partnership between the two sides was formed decades earlier, thanks to PepsiCo’s enterprising former CEO Donald Kendall.

On July 24, 1959, toward the end of the Cold War epoch informally known as the ‘thaw,’ when cultural restrictions began to loosen up a bit following the 1954 death of Joseph Stalin, a 6-week National Exhibition meant to showcase a wide variety American consumer products was set to open at a sprawling fairground at Sokolniki Park in Moscow. Vice President Richard Nixon made the trip out to personally attend the event alongside reformist Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, who was a lot more in favor of forming diplomatic relations with the US than his predecessor.

Dozens of high profile American companies ended up sending representatives to promote their brands, primarily home appliance manufacturers like General Electric, Frigidaire, Whirlpool, MayTag, and Sears, who all set up test kitchens featuring lines of their stoves, ovens, dishwashers, and refrigerators. Plenty of consumer goods companies sent delegations too, the most notable being Levi Strauss, RCA, Polaroid, Kodak, Macy’s Magnavox, Tupperware, Maybeline, and Revlon. Some others weren’t so eager to get into involved, though, primarily out of fear that associating their brand with an obvious enemy of the US would hurt sales at home. Coca Cola was one of those companies. PepsiCo was not.