Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov biography. As a teetotaler, Smirnov created the famous alcohol brand of the Russian Empire. Nephew of the most honest rules

Contents 1 Known media 1.1 A 1.2 B 1.3 ... Wikipedia

Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Smirnov. Pyotr Smirnov: Smirnov, Pyotr Aleksandrovich (1897 1939) Soviet military leader, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st convocation. Smirnov, Pyotr Arsenievich (1831 1898) ... ... Wikipedia

Wikipedia has articles about other people named Smirnov, Vladimir. V.P. Smirnov Vladimir Petrovich Smirnov ... Wikipedia

Smirnov Pyotr Aleksandrovich (1897 1939) Soviet military leader, army commissar of the 1st rank. Smirnov Pyotr Arsenievich Russian entrepreneur, vodka king of Russia, founder of the Smirnoff distillery ... Wikipedia

Vodka Year founded: 1860(?) ... Wikipedia

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The Stalin Prize for outstanding inventions and fundamental improvements in production methods is a form of encouragement for citizens of the USSR for significant services in the technical development of Soviet industry, the development of new technologies, modernization... ... Wikipedia

Contents 1 1941 2 1942 3 1943 4 1946 4.1 Awards ... Wikipedia

Contents 1 1980 2 1981 3 1982 4 1983 5 1984 6 1985 ... Wikipedia

List of laureates Contents 1 1967 2 1968 3 1969 4 1970 5 1971 6 ... Wikipedia

Books

• Smirnovs. Vodka business of Russian merchants, Vladimir Smirnov. In the 19th century, one of the most popular Russian goods in the world was the famous “Smirnovskaya” vodka. The start of the grandiose business was laid by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov, a native of Yaroslavl... eBook
• Heart diseases and their spa treatment, E. A. Smirnov-Kamensky. Economic progress in our country has led to the elimination of many diseases and a sharp reduction in child mortality. The average human life expectancy has exceeded 70 years. However…

Moscow is very fond of beautiful legends about mansions. And even if his true story is known to many, it is still distorted for the sake of a beautiful lie.
Tverskoy Boulevard cannot boast of a large number of buildings in the Art Nouveau style. And this mansion, which stands almost in the middle of it, attracts special attention from walkers.


The gaze of passers-by always stops at the balcony with a fancy forged ornament, reminiscent of a ship sailing on the waves. True, now the lattice of this balcony is covered with ugly letters of the Empire restaurant. For many years, local historians have loved to say that this mansion was given to his mistress by vodka maker Pyotr Petrovich Smirnov. And none of them likes to tell the truth. But his story has nothing to do with this fiction, a lie erected for the sake of a catchphrase, about a good man, a caring family man, about a woman with a difficult fate, like everyone else at that time.

The mansion has an interesting history. Back in the 1760s, it was mentioned as belonging to the horse guard captain Vasily Vasilyevich Istlentyev. In 1763, the house passed to the chamberlain, Lieutenant General Alexander Grigorievich Petrovo-Solovo.
After the fire, it belonged to Count Vladimir Grigorievich Orlov.
In the 19th century it had many owners and many renovations.
The result was a solid “empire mansion”, which in its internal structure retained traces of different eras with different floor levels, a labyrinth of rooms and services.

And so on November 28, 1900, the merchant Pyotr Petrovich Smirnov bought this mansion for his family from the hereditary honorary citizen Nikolai Petrovich Malyutin for 299 thousand rubles. By that time, he had been happily married to Evgenia Ilyinichna Morozova for seven years. They raised three children: Tatyana, Arseny and Alexey. In 1900, another daughter, Olga, was born.

Pyotr Petrovich was the son of Pyotr Arsenyevich Smirnov, the creator of the famous Moscow vodka distillery in Sadovniki and his second wife Natalya Alexandrovna Tarakanova.
In his youth, Pyotr Petrovich himself was engaged in the tea trade in St. Petersburg and moved to Moscow only in 1893 at the insistence of his father, who sought to involve his son in the family business.
The next year (1894) the Partnership of a Vodka Factory, Warehouses of Wine, Spirits and Russian and Foreign Wines P.A. was established. Smirnov" in Moscow with a fixed capital of 3 million rubles, where Pyotr Petrovich became one of the directors. His family was growing, there wasn’t enough room for them all in his parents’ house on Pyatnitskaya, and Peter decided to buy a new house for them.



He invited the then famous Fyodor Shekhtel to be the architect. The Smirnovs were already familiar with him. He built for their family. Pyotr Petrovich set him the task of creating a decent and beautiful home for his family while preserving the multi-level, fancy internal structure of the mansion. But Smirnov wanted his house to become a decoration of the boulevard and stand out from the rest of the development. Therefore, Shekhtel paid a lot of attention to the street facade, while his courtyard facade was extremely simple.


The dominant feature of the boulevard façade was, of course, a large forged balcony-ship, as if floating above the passers-by. The front hall opened into it.


The second dominant feature was a high attic with elongated stained glass windows and a cartouche with the owner’s monogram. The first floor was a utility floor, and on the second, Shekhtel created a magnificent suite of state halls and living rooms for Evgenia Ilyinichna and Pyotr Petrovich. The children's half was located in the attic. Servants lived in the courtyard buildings, there was a stable that overlooked Maly Gnezdnikovsky Lane.

The main staircase was made of white marble, its balustrade resembled an oncoming wave - the master’s favorite technique. On the second floor of the staircase there was a huge window with faceted glass, which shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow in sunny weather. In the lobby, guests were greeted by large ceremonial portraits of the owners of the mansion. All the halls of the front suite were made in different styles. Pyotr Petrovich’s son later recalled that he studied history and art history in these halls.



The formal dining room was in the Romanesque style with wood paneling on the walls, a barrel vaulted ceiling, and a powerful fireplace with two squat columns. Light entered the dining room through a triple lancet window with stained glass.

The large living room, where the owners held large receptions, musical and theatrical evenings, was made in a classical style, richly decorated with stucco, painted greenish. In the painting of the ceiling, Shekhtel placed the monogram SPR - Smirnovs Peter and Evgenia.

A special ceremonial room was the huge Egyptian Hall, for which a special extension was even made from the courtyard. The hall was decorated with papyrus drawings in golden-beige tones.



Two powerful Egyptian columns separated the hall from the corridor. This hall was built specifically for art exhibitions.

The owners preferred realistic painting, which did not go well with the Egyptian decor of the hall, according to Ilya Repin. For Pyotr Petrovich Shekhtel made an office in the Gothic style, and for Evgenia Ilyinichna an elegant boudoir.



The dominant feature of the boudoir was the sail ceiling, all decorated with stucco ornaments of roses.
In the design of the pink living room, Fyodor Shekhtel used a then new lighting technique - light bulbs in the form of blossoming buds were inserted into the stucco ceiling with floral motifs along the perimeter.


This stucco depicted graceful female figures in tunics from two corners.

In all rooms there was beautiful furniture, paintings and other things dear to the heart. A large winter garden was created with strange plants and a small menagerie.


Tatyana Smirnova in the Winter Garden.
Children's rooms were decorated based on Russian fairy tales. The house had English radiators, water heating with its own boiler room. There was forced ventilation.

In this mansion, Pyotr Petrovich and Evgenia Ilyinichna’s last child, son Anatoly, was born in 1902. And in 1910, after a short illness, Pyotr Petrovich Smirnov suddenly passed away very young. He had a common follicular sore throat, complicated by swelling and suffocation. There were no antibiotics then and the heart could not withstand this disease. Evgenia Ilyinichna was left alone with five children. She had to continue her husband's trading business and raise children. Their financial situation became greatly complicated with the introduction of Prohibition and the state monopoly on vodka. But contrary to all rumors and later fabrications, Evgenia Ilyinichna’s family lived in this mansion until the revolution.
They didn’t rent it out to any club and she didn’t want to open any cinema here. By that time, the eldest daughter and son had created their own families and lived in a house on Pyatnitskaya. The revolution in this house was met by Evgenia Ilyinichna with her three youngest children. The house was occupied by cadets who fired from the house at the Red Army soldiers storming the neighboring mansion of the mayor.
The post-revolutionary fate of the family is very sad. Evgenia Ilyinichna, trying to save her family, married the Smirnovs’ Italian business partner and went with him to Japan. But they were not allowed to take the children, and they remained in Russia. Alexey and Anatoly died in the 1920s. Tatyana and her daughter managed to leave for Paris in 1926. Son Arseny wandered a lot around Central Asia, where he died in the mid-20th century.
During Soviet times, the mansion housed a people's court and a military prosecutor's office; court hearings were held in the Romansky Hall. In the 1990s, most of the mansion was given to the Russian Pension Fund. In 1994, it was pushed out by placing the Melodiya company here, which was urgently evicted from the Anglican Church of St. Andrew's Church in Voznesensky Lane 8 (it was then occupied by Melodiya). Now in the right wing of the building and in the courtyard premises there is the Moscow branch of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation. And the state rooms, restored in 2006 by a construction company, are occupied by restaurants that change each other every year. Last year it was the “Shekhtel Club”, now the restaurant (house of receptions and celebrations) “Empire”...
Which disfigured the balcony of the window.

Smirnov Petr Arsenievich

(b. 1831 - d. 1898)

Russian entrepreneur, owner of the largest distillery in Russia and a network of retail establishments selling alcoholic beverages. Creator of the famous Smirnov vodka and many other popular liquors. Supplier of alcohol to the court of the Russian Emperor, as well as the monarchs of Spain, Sweden and Norway.

During his lifetime he was called the “king of Russian vodka.” He was honored, was awarded high ranks and orders from many countries, had a prestigious house in the center of Moscow, a rich crew and a large family: five sons and eight daughters. Former peasant Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov began as a clerk in a wine cellar, and for a long time his name did not mean anything to the average person. No one knew then that this name would become known to the whole world. Smirnov managed not only to become one of the people, but became the richest man in Russia, a commercial adviser and a hereditary honorary citizen of Moscow.

The future famous entrepreneur was born on January 9, 1831 in the village of Kayurovo, Myshkinsky district, Yaroslavl province, into the family of serfs Arseny Alekseevich and Matryona Grigorievna Alekseev. Since the war with Napoleon, their large family has been engaged in the business of “healthing” Kizlyar and “Rhine” (Rhine) wines, which allowed them to save money, buy their freedom and move to live in Moscow. Having become free people, the Alekseevs received permission to bear the surname Smirnov, one of the most common in the Upper Volga.

Little Petya began his working career at the age of 10. He was given by his father “in service” to his brother, Ivan Alekseevich, who was engaged in the sale of vodka, liqueurs and tinctures. When Arseny Smirnov opened his own wine cellar in Zamoskvorechye in 1860, Peter began working as a clerk for his father. There were a dime a dozen competitors in this sector of the market - there were more than 200 taverns in Moscow alone. Nevertheless, the Smirnovs managed to stay afloat. Soon Arseny realized that at 60 years old he could not manage affairs with the same energy, and transferred the powers of the manager to his son.

By the end of 1861, Pyotr Smirnov became a merchant of the third guild. And after some time, he decided not only to trade, but also to start his own “wine factory.” For the rest of his life he remembered the words his father once said about poor quality vodka: “It’s time to make our own, Smirnov’s!” In addition, at this time the necessary legal prerequisites for a new business were created in the country. Everyone was allowed to engage not only in aging and selling Rhine wines, but also in preparing “higher drinks” from alcohol. The production activity of the young merchant began in 1864 in a small Moscow house “near the Cast Iron Bridge.” There was the main office, a small vodka distillery, which employed only 9 hired workers, and a store - the “Rensky cellar”.

At first, all the products of the new enterprise could easily fit into several barrels. But, thanks to the hard work of the company’s founder, his conscientious attitude to business and attention to the interests of the consumer, the business made significant progress in a short time. Over time, it became possible to expand the range of products and increase the number of workers to 25 people.

Gradually production became more complex and expanded. By the beginning of the 1870s. the plant already employed about seventy workers, and production was doubling annually. Not the least role in such a rapid rise was played by the unique approach of the owner of the company to marketing.

The artist Nikolai Zhukov wrote in his diary: “Smirnov hired agents and sent them around the city so that everywhere in taverns they demanded only Smirnov vodka and scolded the owners: why don’t you have such a respectful drink?”

In 1871, Pyotr Arsenievich joined the first guild. He was rich, belonged to the elite of the Moscow merchant class, had a beautiful house, a promising factory, huge warehouses and trade connections with many cities of the country. But the competitors were not asleep. They also tried to make their drinks better to win over the market and were a real threat. There is an urgent need to confirm its primacy with the recognition of not only ordinary consumers, but also specialists. Therefore, in 1873, the products of the Smirnov plant went to the International Industrial Exhibition in Vienna. By the decision of the arbitrators, she was awarded an Honorary Diploma and a medal for participating in the competition. This was the first official recognition of professionals. Since then, almost every year the company has received the highest global and domestic awards.

The international jury recognized the “white wine”, which had pristine purity and uniqueness, as the best “work” of Smirnov. Before the revolution, white table wine was the name for the drink that is now called vodka. And the term “vodka” was then applied to colored bitters: pepper, juniper, lemon, etc. The success of the original Smirnovka technology lay in the careful selection of the best raw materials and a strictly controlled filtration process.

Already in 1876, Smirnov vodka received a Grand Medal at the World Industrial Exhibition in Philadelphia. As a result of this competition, the Ministry of Finance in St. Petersburg awarded Pyotr Smirnov the right to depict the coat of arms of the Russian Empire on his products. This sign of guaranteed quality immediately distinguished his company from its competitors and made it a leader in the vodka industry and wine trade.

Two years later, at the World Exhibition in Paris, Smirnov’s plant was awarded two gold medals: for “table refined wine,” liqueurs, liqueurs, and also for aging grape wines. In 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition, the company received the right to secondary image the State Emblem of Russia on its products, and the owner himself was awarded the gold medal “For Diligence” on the ribbon of St. Andrew the First-Called. At the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, held in 1886, Smirnov vodka greeted visitors with dancing bears, unobtrusively inviting everyone to try it. Everything was very impressive, and the culmination of the fair was the appearance of Emperor Alexander III, with a glass of excellent Smirnovka in his hands.

Soon, by the highest command, Pyotr Arsenievich was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav III degree, and his company was declared the official and only supplier of vodka to the table of the Russian monarch: “The Moscow merchant Pyotr Smirnov was most graciously granted the title of Supplier of the Highest Court. Gatchina, November 22, 1886." This was the moment of greatest happiness; the merchant had been working towards this cherished goal for many years. In this regard, a few days later, an appeal from the main office of the wine trade, P. A. Smirnov, was published in all Moscow newspapers: “I have the honor to inform my customers that I have been honored to be a supplier to the Supreme Court, which is why I have begun to make some changes to the existing labels of my companies." Following this, an image of the third State Emblem of the Russian Empire appeared on the corks and seals closing the bottles with the best Smirnov “works”.

Since that time, the surname “Smirnov” has become a universal trademark, personifying guaranteed quality. Soon, vodka from the Moscow distillery “At the Pig Iron Bridge” became the favorite drink of the King of Sweden and Norway, Oscar II. And in 1888, the products of the Smirnov enterprise were so liked at the World Exhibition in Barcelona that the King of Spain awarded the owner of the plant the Order of St. Isabella. In his homeland, Smirnov, already sufficiently favored by fate and power, was awarded the title of Commerce Advisor by a personal imperial decree “signed by His Majesty’s own hand.” The following year, at the World Exhibition in Paris, he demonstrated the Nizhyn Rowan tincture to the European public for the first time and received a Grand Gold Medal for it.

The opening of its wine trading branches in Paris, London, Harbin, Shanghai and other major cities in the world contributed to the even greater popularity of P. A. Smirnov’s enterprise.

Already by the beginning of the 1890s. Smirnov's distillery was equipped with steam engines and had electric lighting. It employed up to 1.5 thousand people. The scale of this production is evidenced by the following figures: its main turnover was 17 million rubles, of which 9 million rubles of excise duty were paid to the state for refined table wine and alcohol. The plant annually produced up to 45 million “wares” (bottles). To purify table wine, up to 180 thousand pounds of charcoal were used per year. Smirnov’s company rented 7 glass factories, producing up to 7 million bottles of various shapes and sizes annually. Four printing houses, commissioned by her, printed over 60 million labels and labels, and more than 120 thousand rubles a year were spent on the purchase of corks. Just to transport the products of the vodka factory within Moscow, 120 carts were hired daily.

By this time, Pyotr Smirnov had long surpassed his main and most powerful competitors - the Beckmann and Stritter factories in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Along with the systematic increase in production, the range of manufactured products also expanded. The sale of cheap grape wine in wooden barrels, which was in great demand among peasants, increased sharply. They refused to take bottled alcohol for fear of breaking them along the way. Here is how the activity of the enterprise was characterized in the “History of Russian Winemaking”: “The largest wine trade in Moscow was conducted by the company of Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov. More than half a million buckets of wine were stored in its cellars, and due to lack of space in the cellars in the yard, there were another 3,000 forty-bucket barrels of Kizlyar wine.”

The stunning success of the business was ensured not so much by increasing the scale of production and sales, but rather by the tireless improvement of products. After all, the main principle of Pyotr Arsenievich, in his own words, was “to give the best, to produce products from first-class Russian materials and not to spare money and expenses on the most advanced production equipment.”

Possessing a special commercial flair and the gift of foresight, constantly studying forgotten recipes of Russian antiquity and the latest achievements of European winemakers, Smirnov created his own original wine and vodka products. He boldly introduced into factory production various sweet liqueurs and homemade liqueurs: raspberry, chocolate, nut, etc., the best of which was still “Nezhinskaya Rowan”.

Year after year, the company's popularity grew. Smirnov never tired of surprising the public with his new products, which newspapers reported under the heading “Wonderful News.” So, on its shelves appeared “Zubrovka”, “Travnichek”, “Suharnichek”, “Limonnichek”, “English bitter”, “Little Russian casserole”, “Spotykach”, “Fresh cherry” (“tincture of outstanding value”), “Leaflet” ", "Mamura" (liquor made from berries of northern Russia), "Erofeich" (with twenty herbs), etc.

But “Table Wine No. 21” was in particular demand at 40 kopecks per bottle. This drink (belonging to the cheapest 4th grade) “received the right of citizenship everywhere: in officers’ canteens, soldiers’ tea rooms, as well as in the Russian fleet and in special “ladies’ buffets”, at funerals and weddings, and even at celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna in 1896 in Moscow. Thanks to the “drinkability” of this type of table wine and its affordable price, it has essentially become a “folk” strong drink.”

In the 1890s. the assortment of Smirnovsky stores consisted of more than four hundred items, not counting hundreds of foreign ones from the best trading houses around the world. Smirnov ordered competitors’ products from abroad on principle, giving the buyer the opportunity to compare whose wines and liqueurs were better. Now its reserves were located in 15 huge warehouses, and the number of people employed in the production and trade of alcoholic beverages reached 25 thousand people.

Peter Arsenievich received his last gold medal, as World Illustration reported, at the 1897 exhibition in Stockholm for the high quality of refined table wine, berry liqueurs and liqueurs. The Smirnov plant exhibited almost its entire assortment there. The pavilion was designed as a spacious wine cellar, which Oscar II personally visited with Crown Prince Gustav and Prince Charles. Three representatives of the royal dynasty were satisfied with Smirnov’s drinks, which they tasted themselves, not entrusting such an important event to their retinue.

Possessing a huge fortune of 15 million at that time, Pyotr Arsenievich never forgot about the needs of society. Beginning in April 1870, he was an “agent of the Committee on Begging for Alms in the Pyatnitskaya District” of the city of Moscow, taking personal part in the destinies of disadvantaged people. Having been an honorary member of the Council of Orphanages under the Department of Institutions of Empress Maria Feodorovna since 1873, he made his “special personal contribution to the charity of street and homeless children.” At his own expense, he built one of the buildings of the Alexander-Mariinsky Women's School and repeatedly allocated money for its needs.

His constant charitable activities included the Moscow Eye and Alekseevsk Psychiatric Hospitals; The Moscow Department of Guardianship for the Blind and the Society of Military Doctors with its free hospital; Iveron Community of Sisters of Mercy and the Society for Benefiting Needy Siberians and Siberian Women Studying in Educational Institutions; elementary school of the Moscow Palace Office and Guardianship of insufficient students of the Elizabethan Girls' Gymnasium.

But Pyotr Arsenievich showed special love and participation in the matter of “beautification” of churches. He made large personal contributions to the arrangement and restoration of the Moscow Kremlin cathedrals. And in the Annunciation and Verkhospassky Cathedrals he even served as headman and psalm-reader. About the parish church built at the expense of P. A. Smirnov in the Yaroslavl province, in the “small homeland” of his ancestors, Archbishop John of Yaroslavl and Rostov said: “The sacrifice for the church is enormous.” Indeed, this five-domed stone temple could become an adornment of any large city.

Anticipating a family split and division of property after his death, trying to somehow protect the business into which he had invested his whole life from collapse, Pyotr Arsenievich submitted a petition to the office of the Moscow Governor-General to approve the Charter of the new enterprise. Thus, at the beginning of 1894, the “Partnership of a vodka distillery, warehouses of wine, spirits and Russian and foreign wines of P. A. Smirnov in Moscow” was founded. At first, the sons of the founder took an active part in the activities of the new company: Peter (1868–1910), Vladimir (1875–1934) and Nikolai (1873–1937). The authorized capital of the Partnership amounted to 3 million rubles.

However, a year later the government decided to introduce a vodka monopoly. Its objectives were to transfer the production and trade of vodka in the country from private to state hands, while achieving the elimination of underground moonshine, to instill in the people a culture of vodka consumption, and to raise the quality standard of the Russian alcoholic drink. Vodka could now only be produced at state-owned factories and sold in state-owned shops. Thus, Smirnov’s enterprise lost its main trump card - “Table Wine No. 21”. At first, an experienced entrepreneur found a way out of the situation. He began to expand the production of wine, liqueur and other drinks, but they could no longer compare in popularity with vodka. The Partnership's production volumes fell 15 times.

In 1898, Pyotr Arsenievich fell ill. According to relatives, for about six months he mostly lay on the sofa and did not talk to anyone. Unable to withstand the blow dealt to his empire by the introduction of a state alcohol monopoly, the “king of Russian vodka” died on December 12, 1898, bequeathing to his relatives not only the largest fortune in Russia, but also a mandate: never put personal interests above the interests of family and business.

After Smirnov’s death, the heirs of the business remained his widow Maria Nikolaevna (Peter Arsenievich’s first wife died a year after the next birth, and after some time he married a second time) and five sons from both marriages. According to the will, the shares of the inheritance allocated to them were to be in the cash register of the Partnership until the sons reached the age of 35, and for now they could only receive dividends on them. In the name of each of the eight daughters, 30 thousand rubles were deposited in the State and Moscow merchant banks, the interest on which they could use for life, and these amounts themselves were assigned to their children.

A competently drawn up will reliably protected P. A. Smirnov’s capital from fragmentation for several years, which largely determined the stable operation of the plant. However, in 1899, Maria Nikolaevna suddenly died. There were rumors that her death was violent, and her stepdaughters were suspected of this. The widow's share of the inheritance passed to her younger sons - Vladimir, Sergei and Alexei. The balance provided for by the will was upset, which created a situation in the family business in which joint ownership became impossible. The situation was also aggravated by the fact that the older and younger Smirnov brothers were half-brothers. It got to the point that the guardians of the younger brothers Sergei and Alexei, the children of Maria Nikolaevna, hid them from their elders by changing addresses.

In 1902, the “Partnership of P. A. Smirnov” was liquidated and with the funds received as a result of this operation, the older brothers “bought at a discount” all the movable and immovable property of the company. It was transferred to the immediately established new Trading House “Peter, Nikolai and Vladimir Petrovich Smirnov, trading under the company of P. A. Smirnov in Moscow.” However, soon Nikolai, who led a lavish lifestyle, and Vladimir, who was only interested in horse breeding, left the family business, selling their shares to their brother.

Until his sudden death in 1910, Pyotr Petrovich Smirnov remained the sole legal owner of the enterprise and trademark. Then management of the famous company passed to his widow, Evgenia Ilyinichna (née Morozova). But she was of little interest to the state of wine and vodka production. She spent a lot of time abroad, and in 1917 she stayed there forever, marrying the Italian consul De La Valle-Rici. During its “management”, Smirnov’s company began to lose its creditworthiness, and it no longer had the title of Supplier of the Highest Court. After the revolution, the plant operated for no more than a year and was forced to stop production.

Then the company was nationalized, and one of the Smirnov brothers, Vladimir Petrovich, ended up abroad. There he managed to sell his rights to the famous trademark for the second time to an emigrant from Russia, Rudolf Kunett, who planned to organize the sale of vodka in America and Canada. This entrepreneur clearly foresaw the consequences of the abolition of Prohibition in the United States and, having calculated the rise in alcohol consumption, was already counting the profits. However, after the liberalization of the alcohol trade, Americans rushed to drink whiskey, cocktails and gin. They simply knew nothing about vodka. As a result, the company was on the verge of collapse.

Kunett turned to the president of Hublein Inc. for help. John Martin. He also had no idea what vodka was, but Smirnoff bought the license for production and sale, for which the board of directors almost fired him from his job. And then the company decided on a kind of experiment. 2 thousand boxes of vodka were produced with a stamp on the cork “Smirnoff Whiskey”. This product was marketed in South Carolina as “flavorless white whiskey” and quickly gained the liking of local consumers.

So, since 1939, Smirnovskaya vodka received American citizenship, and since the late 1940s. It has already taken root so much that it has begun to replace gin in the most popular cocktail recipes. Today the whole world recognizes Smirnoff, not only by its taste, but also by its memorable bottle and label. More than 500 thousand bottles of this drink are sold daily in 140 countries, including Russia and Ukraine.

In February 1991, the great-grandson of the famous Russian entrepreneur Boris Alekseevich Smirnov and his father registered the small enterprise “P. A. Smirnov and descendants in Moscow.” The revival of the company began with him. The heirs not only restored the family house near the Chugunny Bridge, but also resumed trading in alcoholic beverages, both home-made and foreign, under the family brand “Smirnov”.

Now, slowly but surely, the same surname is dividing the world in half for itself. And each of the participants in the competition considers himself the sole copyright holder of the famous name. Litigation on this issue has not subsided for many years. True, they only affect the marketing side of the business, and as for technology, the Americans remain silent. The fact that “Smirnoff” has nothing in common with “Smirnov” has been proven as a result of numerous laboratory studies. And it doesn’t even matter whether Boris Smirnov actually has the recipe secrets of his eminent ancestor, which he inherited. The consumer “feels the difference”, he can no longer be deceived by a beautiful sticker, and he will make his own choice.