Amtorg Trading Corporation

Amtorg Trading Corporation, also known simply as Amtorg, was the first Soviet trade representation in the United States when Armand Hammer established it in New York in 1924 through the amalgamation of the American firms Products Exchange Corporation (1919) and Arcos-America Inc (1923). The latter was the US office of All Russian Co-operative Society (ARCOS). Amtorg served Soviet import and export firms seeking to conduct foreign trade in the US throughout the Communist era. It also served as a front for GRU and OGPU (Soviet intelligence) operations in the US. This was especially important in the early years, before Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized the Soviets in 1933, allowing them a permanent embassy in Washington, D.C. It continued to handle most Soviet-America trade until 1935. it still exists.

As an arm of the Soviet state, Amtorg was targeted in two bombing attempts, in 1971 and again in 1976, by domestic terrorists calling themselves the "Jewish Armed Resistance."