#227 Russia's Long History of Nationalizing Foreign Property

The Road to Now

Benjamin Sawyer

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Russian government recently made moves to nationalize the property of foreign owned firms that ceased operation in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine. Ben's research is all about the history of foreign investment in Russia/the Soviet Union, so he and Bob sit down for a discussion about the very severe consequences that nationalization has had for Russia in the past and how this decision may do damage that far outlast sanctions.

For more on Singer Sewing Machines in Russia, check out Ben's article "Manufacturing Germans: Singer Manufacturing Company and American Capitalism in the Russian Imagination during World War I.: (Enterprise & Society, Vol. 17, No. 2 (June 2016) pp 301-323.)

This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's crazy. What the Russians have announced now is straight up the middle of the field for
0:09.6	like what my research has been on recently. Well, so check this out. Reading the New York Times,
0:13.9	this quote jumped out at me thinking to you. The prospect of the Kremlin seizing private assets
0:19.9	rattled Russia's business community. Vladimir
0:22.5	Potanin, a metals magnate, who is one of Russia's richest men, released a statement warning that such
0:28.4	nationalization would bring us back 100 years to 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution
0:34.4	when the Bolsheviks forcibly took over enterprise, private
0:37.7	enterprises.
0:39.3	Yes.
0:39.9	And Bob, that is spot on.
0:43.1	And I'll just say this.
0:44.4	It actually goes back to even further because during World War I, the Tsarist government
0:50.7	actually sequestered some foreign businesses after allegations that they were
0:56.5	affiliated with other countries. So this has been the heart of my research for the last bit.
1:02.2	So for you, it was Singer Sewing Company? Singer Manufacturing Company, one of the largest
1:08.6	multinational corporations in the world.
1:11.6	So can you set this up for us?
1:13.6	Yes. So basically Singer, Bob, you know the general narrative in the United States that is like,
1:18.6	foreign policy wasn't in line with business until the Spanish-American War.
1:24.6	And that's the reason you see a surge of American businesses overseas.
1:29.0	Singer actually created a corporate structure that was amazing. And they did it. And so they expanded,
1:36.3	by the 1860s, they were selling sewing machines in Russia. And they did it all kind of on their
	...

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