Self-Immolation: Fred Koch and the USSR

 

Self-Immolation: Fred Koch and the USSR

            Charles Koch and David Koch are criticized by left-wing politicians and the media for their vast wealth and politics. It is known they supported both Libertarian and Republican candidates in the past. Bernie Sanders went as far as to claim “The agenda of the Koch brothers is to repeal every major piece of legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the most vulnerable in this country.”[1] Contextually, this claim could not be farther from the truth. The Soviet Union depended on Winkler-Koch for their refinery process and technical expertise while simultaneously killing those that learned from Fred Koch.

            Fred Koch never had a particular interest in Communism or left-wing politics, but he was more disgruntled from the various litigations taking place against his company that forced him to look at markets elsewhere even if that market was the government itself.[2] By the time Fred Koch began working with the Soviet Union in 1927, the Communist Party had taken control of Imperial Russia. All Communists remained loyal to Lenin, but there was a stark contrast between those sympathetic to the now exiled Leon Trotsky and Josef Stalin. Internal debates took place outside their economic programs.[3] The USSR established Special commissions to make sure that the party infiltrated all economic branches. Furthermore, it was expected that the party presence takes place in all. This presence included the administration, education, industry management, and trade unions.[4]

 


              This policy significantly limited economic success during the “the great breakthrough.” Most significantly, the violence and killings that took place afterward negatively impacted the economic growth of the Soviet Union.[5] Rightly, Stalin had reason to believe that the older economic managers of the late 1920s and 1930s wanted him deposed after the Soviet Union witnessed an agricultural disaster. It was then that Stalin began purging these economic administrators.[6] Fred Koch worked alongside many of these economic administrators.

            Fred Koch recounted that “Mr. Ganshin, president of Soyuzneft, the All Union Oil Trust… told me to come see him in at Baku. When I came to Russia a year and a half later…. Mr. Ganshin was on trial for his life, later shot.”[7] This action was not uncommon for Fred Koch; he worked with many that fell victim to the purges. Russian engineers studied American refining practices in Wichita only later shot or sent to Siberia.[8] However, the purges ruined the work of Winkler-Koch that opened fifteen oil cracking stills. After witnessing these terrible atrocities, Fred Koch wrote extensively on the political and economic dangers of the Soviet Union.

            It is essential to define economic determinism if researching the Soviet Union. Fred Koch defines it as “the individual is determined by the entire personality of the economic system under which he grew.”[9] If a child lives under a capitalist system, they are entirely corrupt; therefore, dialectical materialism is the primary focus of the Communist state. Men mean no more than the common fly. Rightly, Fred Koch stipulates that the Communist state wants the people to believe Christianity is just an opiate and capitalists want to maintain the status quo.[10] The man who taught him these principles was Jerome Livshitz.

            Livshitz was required to go with Fred Koch as he traveled throughout the Soviet Union and was a hardcore party member. Koch later recalled that he once saved Livshitz’s life after helping lift an overturned car off him. Livshitz then said to him, “Why did you save my life? We are enemies. I would not have saved yours….If my own mother stood in the way of the revolution I would strangle her with my bare hands.”[11] This experience left an impression on Fred Koch as he organized Koch Industries in the United States. For the rest of his life, he spoke out against Communism and its principles.

           Koch Industries went onto be one of the largest industries in the United States, investing in more than just new refinery practices. Charles Koch later took over the company after his father’s death. Charles Koch Industries emphasizes the need for letting ideas flow; and the idea that the Communist state did not permit. Koch Industries continued to grow throughout the 20th century. Unfortunately, for the Soviet Union, they purged all those engineers that studied under a great company, and the state let the economy flounder for the rest of the 20th century.

Bibliography

Brovkin, Vladimir N. Russia after Lenin Politics, Culture and Society, 1921-1929 London: Routledge, 1998.

Davies, R. W. The Industrialization of Soviet Russia. Vol. 7. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Koch, Fred. A Businessman Looks at Communism. F.C. Koch; 4th edition, 1960.

Scaliger, Charles. “Fred Koch: Oil Man Against Communism.” New American (08856540) 27, no. 12 (2011): 35–39. 

“What Do the Koch Brothers Want?” Bernie Sanders: U.S. Senator for Vermont. 2020. https://www.sanders.senate.gov/koch-brothers.

 


[1] “What Do the Koch Brothers Want?,” Bernie Sanders: U.S. Senator for Vermont, 2020, https://www.sanders.senate.gov/koch-brothers.

[2] Charles Scaliger, “Fred Koch: Oil Man Against Communism,” New American (08856540) 27, no. 12 (2011): 36. 

[3] Vladimir Brovkin, Russia after Lenin Politics, Culture and Society, 1921-1929,  (London: Routledge, 1998), 192.

[4] Ibid. 196.

[5] R. W. Davies, The Industrialization of Soviet Russia. Vol. 7, (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 2.

[6] Ibid. 3.

[7] Fred Koch, A Businessman Looks at Communism, (F.C. Koch; 4th edition, 1960), 7.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid. 10.

[10] Ibid. 9.

[11] Ibid. 8.

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