ABSTRACT
Introduction Sweden and Russia have a long history of trade and investment but over time the nature and level of investments have shifted as the political and economic circumstances have changed. Kragh (2014a) provides a very long-term perspective on trade and investments between the two countries dating back to the Vikings, as well as an overview of the Swedish companies that were exporting to and investing in Russia from the middle of the nineteenth century and over the Swedish manufacturing boom in the early twentieth century. A striking fact is that, in 1915, Russia accounted for 30 percent of Swedish exports of engineering products, equivalent to the exports to Norway, Germany, and Great Britain combined. Many Swedish firms were, at the time, also investing in Russia, including ASEA, (Electro)Lux, LM Ericsson, Nordiska Kompaniet (NK), the Nobel brothers, and Svenska Kullager Fabriken (SKF). All of this, of course, came to an abrupt end in 1917 when the Bolsheviks came to power and private assets were confiscated. According to estimates reported in Kragh (2014b), the assets seized from (at least) 148 Swedish companies and 401 households amounted to around 6 percent of Swedish GDP at the time.
