Did US Companies Profit From Communism?

This is an auction running on EBay. I have reduced it here (obviously). The item is a factory emblem, which bears the General Electric logo. The seller is in Moscow and says that the factory was built between 1920 and 1930.




...This is from the seller's description:

UNIQUE GENERAL ELECTRIC BRONZE SIGN from Russia 1930

This unique sign is from exe USSR.

It was on one of the largest metallurgical factories in the Europe in town Magnitogorsk.

This factory was built in 1920's - 1930's.

Experts from the USA have been involved for designing and consultation of construction of a factory.

Experts from General Electric have been involved too. Machines and mechanisms from the USA were bought also.

Size is 23 3/4" x 14 3/4".
There is number on the back side: N.P. 16700.
Weight is about 16 kg.

EBay Item #720235419 Link

Did American companies actually build most of the infrastructure of the USSR, and did their brand names profit from those activities?

No wonder WW2 ended the way it did. Any American commie-haters would surely have loved to continue on into Russia and take out Stalin. Maybe this item (if it is real) could shed some light on why something like that would never have been allowed?

Here's a pic of Magnitogorsk.

This is from the Wikipedia entry under "Ernst May":

en.wikipedia.org...

In 1930 May took virtually his entire Frankfurt staff to Russia. May's Brigade amounted to a task force of 17 people, including Lihotsky, her husband Wilhelm Schuette, the Swiss Hans Schmidt, and the Dutch Mart Stam. The promise of the "Socialist paradise" was still fresh, and May's Brigade and other groups of western planners had the hope of constructing entire cities. The first was to be Magnitogorsk. Although May's group is indeed credited with building 20 cities in three years, the reality was that May found Magnitogorsk already under construction and the town site dominated by the mine.

So in 1930, the city was already under construction, with a design toward using local resources as fuel for power. How did General Electric find the time to build up Russia when their own nation (America) was in such economic distress?

This is from Wikipedia under "Magnitogorsk":

en.wikipedia.org...

The city played an important role during the World War II. Half of all tanks, each third projectile were made from steel of Magnitka.

[edit on 2-4-2006 by smallpeeps]

I am curious as to why, in all that researching of that Russian General Electric emblem from 1920-1930, that you did not research the time period.

The time period you have specified falls right into the time period in Russian history known as the New Economic Policy (1921-1928), instituted by Lenin (more can be found on the internet--the link was found in haste).

The significance of this program was that it was capitalistic in nature, allowing foreign companies access to the severely ailing Russian economy, as well as allowing liberal economic freedom within the Communist system itself.






seekerof

I didn't reply to the dude above, because well, that reply wasn't really enough to make me do so.

But this gem of a thread deserves a bounce because everyone knows GE doesn't pay taxes and that they own the Super Bowl ad space.

I really feel the original post here deserves more analysis than dumbledore above gives it. But I don't feel like crafting that reply.

Please do reply here if you feel GE SHOULD pay taxes and NOT build up the enemy, which would be the opposite of reality. Thanks.