Russian Soul

It can be discomfiting to hear a bond trader break into song. It’s downright jarring when you’re in Moscow and your Russian colleague suddenly starts belting out a Negro spiritual.

Louis Armstrong’s version of Go Down, Moses is the universal music for callers on hold at Alfa Bank. He was on the line working a trade and heard a few of the refrains just a couple times too many.

“When Israel was in Egypt’s Land”

The use of the song goes back to the early 1990’s when it started appearing in commercials for the then-new retail bank. The ad opens with a man standing in a what seems an interminable line. Then he’s confronted with a beautiful, but nasty, teller who refuses to process any of his transactions and brusquely rejects his paperwork. The teller’s colleagues take him aside and whisper in his ear. When he gets back in front of the teller with newly filled out forms, the teller looks down and discovers that they simply say “Happy Birthday.” The previously harsh demeanor melts away and is replaced with a laugh, a bashful smile, and speedy service.

“Let my people go”

The production quality of the ad was very high. Still, I always thought it was a bit strange to advertise your own bank that way. “Hey”, it shouts, “We’re the bank where you have to go the extra mile to get decent service!”

“Oppressed so hard they could not stand,”

Alfa’s advertising now is very sophisticated and well targeted and, for the most part, indistinguishable from typical western bank ads. But the song lives on. My colleagues speculate that’s because the owner of the bank likes the song.

“Let my people go.”

Still, I think they kept the song because it's very appropriate. Certainly, the whole thing about living in bondage is applicable to the Soviet period. But the fact remains that the Russian retail banking sector is still dominated by the government-owned Sberbank. It leads all banks in deposits and assets, as well as number of locations. And like any government sponsored enterprise, service is legendarily bad.

The rumor is that Sberbank will be floated to the public within the next couple of years. It should make for some interesting analysis in the prospectus; “Our competitive advantage is that most people don’t have any other choice.”

So perhaps the old spiritual song from the American south has a closer relationship to Russia than I originally thought. After all, Faulkner wrote a novel entitled Go Down, Moses. One chapter, about a hunting trip, is considered a masterful short story in its own right. Its title? The Bear. Symbol of Russia? The Bear.

Is that too much of a stretch? Aristophanes.

“Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt's Land.
Tell ol' Pharaoh,
Let my people go.”

Of course, imagine all this with a Russian accent. I, for one, will probably be unable to remember it any other way.