This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is our American stories, and our next story comes to us from a man who's simply known as the History Guy.

His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of all ages on YouTube.

The History Guy is also heard right here on our American stories.

Today, the History Guy remembers rubles, cola, and a kitchen that changed history.

It is a forgotten moment during the Cold War that deserves to be remembered.

Here's the history guy.

Soft drinks are hard business.

The total worldwide beverage market value in 2018 was estimated at $2.2 trillion.

The Coca-Cola company's net operating revenues in 2016 were over $40 billion.

The industry is so lucrative that it represents one of the longest-lasting wars in modern history.

The Cola Wars.

While beverage industry giants Pepsi and Coke have been competing since their creation in the 19th century, the Kola Wars referred to particularly aggressive advertising against each

other since the 1980s.

That war took an odd turn in 1990 when PepsiCo purchased a fleet of war ships.

Yes, actual warships that gave them at the time the sixth largest submarine navy in the world.

That odd event had to do with the peculiarities of the world's second oldest national currency,

the most significant world conflict of the post-World War II era, and a visionary businessman.

It is a story that deserves to be remembered.

The Rubel offered a unique challenge for the Bolsheviks following the Russian Revolution.

In Marx's theory, money should not be necessary and only encouraged the sort of personal desire that was contrary to the idea of a classless society.

As Leon Trotsky explained, in a communist society,

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