At the end of World War Two, two important
generals from two of the victorious Allied nations celebrated the end of the war in a
very simple and wholesome way - by sharing a good, old-fashioned glass of iced-cold Coca
Cola. Little did either of these great men know
it at the time, but this simple moment of celebration and camaraderie is why Soviet
Russia invented clear Coca Cola. One of these great men was General Georgy
Zhukov, a highly decorated and popular Soviet General. After earning commendations for his actions
as a cavalry commander for the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, he studied military
science in Russia and Germany. A dedicated Bolshevik, Zhukov worked his way
up the ranks of the Soviet Army, serving as Chief of Staff during the Winter War with
Finland before being promoted to Chief of Staff for the entire Red Army. During World War Two, Zhukov was appointed
as Commander in Chief of the Western Front. He organized and oversaw the defence of Leningrad
and Moscow, and was credited with driving the Nazis out of central Russia. As Marshal of the Soviet Union, the most important
command during World War Two, he led the final and victorious assault on Berlin in nineteen
forty-five. His bravery and leadership before and during
the war earned Zhukov a place at the table as the Soviet Union’s representative at
Germany’s formal surrender. And it was at this meeting that Zhukov had
his first fateful taste of Coca Cola. The most important leaders and generals from
the victorious Allied Nations were gathered in Berlin on May eighth, nineteen-forty-five
to accept Germany’s formal surrender. Zhukov was there as the Soviet Union's representative,
and he was tasked with reading the terms of Germany’s surrender aloud to the gathering
of high-ranking military leaders, which included the renowned U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Moods were high as the Allied leaders celebrated
their victory, but they also used this opportunity to try and shore up their alliances with each
other. That could be why Eisenhower decided to take
this opportunity to share a glass of America’s favourite soda with his Russian counterpart. If Coca Cola is the quintessential American
drink, how did Zhukov end up tasting it in decimated Berlin at the end of the war in
the first place? Well, believe it or not, Coca Cola played
a big role in the U.S.’s World War Two war machine. Before the war broke out Coca Cola had already
become synonymous with the American way of life and American values. During the war countless soldiers wrote home
about how they were really fighting for the little things, like an iced-cold glass of
Coca Cola, rather than for bigger political ideals. At the outbreak of the war the Coca Cola company
allowed all soldiers in uniform to buy a bottle of Coca Cola for just five cents, but that
was just the beginning of their war-time activities. In nineteen-forty-three General Eisenhower
wanted to boost the morale of his men on the front lines who were missing the comforts
of home and the familiar luxuries like soda fountains. Eisenhower decided that bringing soda to the
soldiers on the front lines was just the thing to boost morale and keep his men’s spirits
up. He sent an urgent telegram home asking for
three million bottles of Coca Cola for his men, along with the equipment to clean and
refill the bottles. The Coca Cola Company did him one better - they
sent one-hundred and fifty of their own employees to the front lines to oversee the installation
and management of several new Coca Cola bottling factories near the action. Although they weren’t technically in the
army, these employees were given military uniforms and were treated as officers, which
led to them being affectionately nicknamed “The Coca Cola Colonels” by the grateful
men on the front. Coca Cola was strategic about their marketing
during the war, too. They promoted Coca Cola as “the taste of
home” and “the drink that fights back”, and marketed the drink heavily to soldiers
on the front lines and workers on the home front. Their taglines focused on Coke’s ability
to bring people together, with “Have a Coke - a way of saying ‘We’re With You’”. They even encouraged workers and soldiers
to take a break and enjoy a Coca Cola, “the pause that refreshes”, because it would
apparently make them more efficient, according to research conducted by Coca Cola’s executives. By the end of the war, sixty-four new Coca
Cola bottling plants had been built in Europe and North Africa, which worked out well for
the Coca Cola Company in the long run. GIs were eager to share their favorite drink
with the locals as they liberated towns and cities all over Europe, effectively creating
a huge new consumer base for Coca Cola in Europe. Many of the bottling factories remained open
after the war as Coca Cola focused on expanding their reach internationally and becoming the
world-leading refreshment company. Some places, though, remained stubbornly opposed
to Coca Cola and all that it represented. After his first sip of the sweet, caramel
soda, Zhukov knew he was now a bonafide Coke addict. And with new Coca Cola plants popping up all
over Europe during the war, he had no trouble feeding his habit while he spent months in
western Europe working with other leaders to decide the fate of Germany and design the
new landscape of European and world politics. Zhukov wanted to make sure he could still
have his favorite drink when he returned home to Russia, but there was one small problem
- he knew that there was no way that the Soviet regime would allow him to bring Coca Cola
- the very embodiment of American capitalist ideals - into his communist home country. This may have been the pre-Cold War era, but
relations between the U.S. and the USSR were far from warm. There was already tension between the capitalist
U.S. and the communist Soviet Union as each country sought to emerge from World War Two
as the dominant world superpower and spread their values and politics across the globe. The Soviet Union’s goal was to spread communism
around the world, and the capitalist Americans were their greatest foe in this regard. The Soviets saw anything American, including
- and maybe especially - Coca Cola, as the very embodiment of ‘evil’ capitalist values. They would never allow Coca Cola to sell their
products in the Soviet Union, and they certainly couldn’t let a high-ranking and extremely
popular war hero to be seen to be promoting capitalist values by drinking Coca Cola. Zhukov was all too aware of how dangerous
it could be for him to bring Coca Cola home to Russia, but he wasn’t ready to give up
on his new favorite drink just yet. Zhukov was determined to build a stockpile
of Coca Cola to feed his new addiction once he returned to the Soviet Union. Zhukov decided to take advantage of the U.S.’s
apparent desire to keep on good terms with the Soviets to help him secure a supply of
Coca Cola before he returned home. Legend has it that Zhukov approached U.S.
President Harry Truman himself about his predicament, and that Truman agreed to help the Soviet
General get his hands on some Coke. Whether or not President Truman was really
involved, Zhukov’s wishes became known to General Mark W. Clark, the U.S.’s commander
in Austria in nineteen-forty-six. In his book For God, Country and Coca Cola,
author Mark Pendergrast claims that General Clark acted as Zhukov’s go-between with
the Coca Cola Company, and was the one to pass along Zhukov’s specific and rather
strange demands. Zhukov knew that even being seen with a bottle
of caramel-colour Coca Cola - or even just being caught with a distinctive Coke bottle
- could be disastrous for him. The Soviet elite had destroyed men’s careers
and ruined their lives for much less, and his high-ranking position and recent popularity
made him especially vulnerable. Other Soviet elites would be watching him
with hawk eyes, searching for any tidbit of information that could be used against him. Still, he was determined to get his fix, and
he knew just how to make it happen. Zhukov had an idea that would help him bring
Coca Cola into the USSR in disguise, and he asked General Clark to relay his specifications
to the Coca Cola company. Zhukov requested that his special batch of
Coca Cola be made “a different colour” and not be “put in that funny-looking bottle”. The Coca Cola Company jumped into action yet
again. This time, one of their chemists played around
with their secret formula until he was able to get the same great Coca Cola taste without
the signature caramel colouring. The finished product was clear in colour and
Clear Coke was born. Fifty cases of the new custom Clear Coke were
produced in Brussels especially for General Zhukov. The clear beverage was bottled in specially-made
straight-sided bottles, since the regular curvy Coke bottles that were designed to fit
comfortably in your hand would have been a dead giveaway. The new bottles even came complete with a
red Soviet star on the white cap that sealed each bottle. Zhukov was thrilled - he knew his plan would
work because the new clear beverage looked just like vodka. Although just getting caught with a bottle
of Coca Cola could be grounds for getting you sent to the dreaded gulags, it was perfectly
acceptable for high-ranking members of the Soviet regime to drink straight vodka in public
at all times of the day and night. Zhukov would now be able to enjoy his new
favorite beverage right under the noses of the Soviet elite, and no one would think twice
about it because they would assume he was just drinking vodka like a good Soviet would. The Coca Cola Company did Zhukov a solid,
but they didn’t do it purely out of the goodness of their hearts. In exchange for their troubles, Zhukov made
sure that Coca Cola employees and executives could travel freely in Soviet-controlled Austria
without dealing with mountains of red tape. That seems like a small price to pay for fifty
cases of a custom-made beverage! Sadly, but not surprisingly for Soviet Russia,
Zhukov fell out of favour with the Soviet regime shortly after he returned to Russia
following the war. His extraordinary popularity among the Russian
people made him a great threat to Stalin, the Soviet leader, and Zhukov spent the next
several years working obscure, regional commands away from the centre of power in Moscow. After Stalin’s death he briefly regained
some of his old power, being appointed Deputy Minister and then Minister of Defence under
new leader Nikita Khrushchev. But Khrushchev quickly tired of Zhukov’s
constant attempts to make the Soviet army more autonomous and he was once again relieved
of his commands and removed from all party posts. He lived the rest of his life in relative
obscurity until Khrushchev fell from power, but at the end of his life Zhukov was awarded
the Order of Lenin for his heroic actions during World War II and his lifelong service
to the Soviet Union, and he was allowed to publish his autobiography before he died in
nineteen-seventy-four. Oddly enough, nineteen-seventy-three, the
year before Zhukov died, was the first year that Pepsi was available for purchase in the
USSR. Sadly, Zhukov wouldn’t live to see his favorite
Coca Cola products hit Russian stores in nineteen-eighty-five. In nineteen-ninety-two, Coca Cola released
its own brand of clear soda, called Tab Clear. The product was a huge failure and was pulled
in nineteen-ninety-four, but insiders claim that this was Coca Cola’s plan all along… During the mid-nineties there was a huge trend
towards clear drinks because they ‘communicated a sense of wellness’ to consumers. Even beer companies were rushing to produce
clear versions of their products to capitalize on this craze. Pepsi had introduced their version of a clear
soda, Crystal Pepsi, in the early nineties, and Coca Cola chief marketing officer Sergio
Zyman - who had defected from Pepsi years earlier - created Tab Clear in a kamikaze
effort to destroy Pepsi. The competing branding of the two products
was intended to confuse consumers about the health benefits of the clear beverage market
and when Tab Clear inevitably failed, it took down Crystal Pepsi with it - just as Coca
Cola had planned all along. Clearly, clear soda is great for fooling Soviet
leaders into thinking that one of their heros is just drinking vodka, but it’s not-so-great
for getting the average capitalist consumer to part with their hard-earned money. Be sure and check out our other videos, like
“Russian Stereotypes”, or this other video instead.
