Pepsi-Cola became the first American consumer product sold in the Soviet Union through Pepsi's 1972 agreement.
The arrangement grew from contacts between Pepsi executives and Soviet officials, including a meeting at the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow. Pepsi's international chief Donald Kendall later worked with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and other officials to establish distribution in the Soviet market.
The agreement made Pepsi a highly visible American brand behind the Iron Curtain. Because Soviet currency could not be freely exchanged, the early arrangement involved barter and later complex trade terms rather than a simple cash import system.
This milestone is sometimes confused with Coca-Cola's later Soviet entry. Coca-Cola did not begin selling in the Soviet Union until 1985, so Pepsi arrived there first among the two major cola rivals.