# How much debt to Wall Street/ US government did the Bolshevik government renege on? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2023, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-debt-to-wall-street-us-government-did-the-bolshevik-government-renege-on/989454 "2023-09-01T07:51:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-debt-to-wall-street-us-government-did-the-bolshevik-government-renege-on/989454/1 "2023-09-01T07:51:12Z")
How much debt to Wall Street/ US government did the Bolshevik government renege on ? ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-debt-to-wall-street-us-government-did-the-bolshevik-government-renege-on/989454/2 "2023-09-01T19:34:49Z")
Remember Wall Street was not the dominant financial center in the years leading up to 1918 as it is today–so the vast majority of the Russian foreign debt was held in Europe: Great Britain, France… > In 1914, 80% of the Russian government debt was held in France and 14% in Great Britain. > **[Repudiation of debt at the Russian Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repudiation_of_debt_at_the_Russian_Revolution)** > > The repudiation of debt at the Russian revolution was > the 1918 rejection of all sovereign debt and other financial obligations by the Bolshevik government upon attaining power. > In February 1918, after the Russian Revolution, the repudiation of the debt by the Soviet government shocked international finance and triggered unanimous condemnation by the governments of the great powers. The British, and especially the French, had lost millions of pounds of foreign investment in Russia. > Revolutiona... ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-debt-to-wall-street-us-government-did-the-bolshevik-government-renege-on/989454/3 "2023-09-01T20:21:19Z")
The less loaded term is “repudiate,” and US repudiation of debt owed to Britain in the 19th century even made it into a song. Written in 1846, the song “Annexation,” sung to the tune of “Yankee Doodle,” includes two verses that go Yankee has some public works, Well he may parade them, English money paid for all, And Irish labour made them. Then hey for Yankee Doodle’s luck, And for Annexation; Hey for Yankee Doodle’s pluck And for Repudiation. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-debt-to-wall-street-us-government-did-the-bolshevik-government-renege-on/989454/4 "2023-09-01T21:25:06Z")
I didn’t do a deep dive, but several sources indicate that most of the debt repudiated at the time of the revolution was to bankers and bondholders rather than governments. After the war, governments stepped in, especially the French, to limit the damage. [France alone had 1,600,000 bondholders](https://againstthecurrent.org/atc195/rr-tzarist-debt/). > In Rome, London and Washington the authorities did the same [as in France]: they exchanged Russian bonds respectively for Italian, British or U.S. bonds. As for the Japanese government, it indemnified Japanese holders of Russian bonds at a rate of 100%. I can’t find any figures for the U.S. The total must have been greater than zero, but a minuscule amount of the £3,385 million the Russians owed by 1919. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2023, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-debt-to-wall-street-us-government-did-the-bolshevik-government-renege-on/989454/5 "2023-09-02T02:46:25Z")
ISTR there is one US state, I think it may have been Georgia, that is prohibited from doing any sort of business or borrowing through the City of London, having reneged on certain bond payments in the 19th century. Always keep your receipts. You can be sure some successor corporation still wants to be paid back. The Soviets were always “Nyet” on this matter. ---
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2023, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-debt-to-wall-street-us-government-did-the-bolshevik-government-renege-on/989454/6 "2023-09-02T09:39:28Z")
Thanks Exapno\_Mapcase. I came across the same sums you mentioned. I couldn’t find and figured in $ amounts. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2023, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-debt-to-wall-street-us-government-did-the-bolshevik-government-renege-on/989454/7 "2023-09-02T11:44:06Z")
There are conversions to convert pounds to dollars: In 1919 £1 = $4.43 [https://www.measuringworth.com/datasets/exchangepound/result.php?year\_source=1900&year\_result=2012](https://www.measuringworth.com/datasets/exchangepound/result.php?year_source=1900&year_result=2012) So £3,385 million = $14,996 million But back then $1 was worth a great deal more than today: > The average number of hours worked per week was 45.6, and the average earnings _per hour were 56.1 cents_. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1820827](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1820827) Or a cup of coffee cost a nickel in 2020: > **[How much did a cup of coffee cost in 1920? - Answers](https://www.answers.com/economics/How_much_did_a_cup_of_coffee_cost_in_1920)** > > The average cup of coffee cost 5 cents in 1920. Today, that same > cup of coffee may cost as much as two dollars.