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The Tsars' Vodka
The growth of vodka distilling at the end of the 15th century was brought on by advances in distilling technology and new surpluses of grain, thanks to the introduction of crop rotation. Not surprisingly, at about this time, state and tsar began to take an interest in vodka. s earning power. Whereas Grand Prince Ivan III (1462-1505) had completely forbidden the production of strong spirits, Tsar Ivan IV ("the Terrible," 1533-1584) built the first kabak (tavern) for his oprichniny (palace guard) in Moscow, on the Balchug. Tradition has it that Ivan saw Tatar kabaks during his siege of Kazan (1552), and he decided to use the same principal of state-owned distilleries/taverns as a way to control the trade in spirits while profiting from them. Still, Ivan IV did not love drinking, and he restricted drinking in kabaks (which spread throughout the country during his rule) to Holy Week, Christmas and "Dmitry's Saturday" [until 1769, an October holiday to remember those killed in Dmitry Donskoy. s famous Battle of Kulikovo field; after 1769, the day was moved to August 29]. At all other times, public drunkenness could lead to a prison term.

Tsar Fyodor (1584-1598), who succeeded Ivan IV, led a drive to tear down kabaks. But Boris Godunov (1598-1605) recognized the economic value of the vodka trade and ordered expanded building of kabaks, even allowing vodka to be purchased and taken off the premises.

By the early 1600s, the smallest towns and villages had their kabak, often called a kruzhechny dvor (derived from kruzhka, the tankard used to measure wine, and dvor, meaning courtyard). The end result was rising drunkenness, which Tsar Mikhail (1613-1645), the first Romanov tsar, combated with limited prohibition. Like Fyodor, he moved to tear down the kabaks, establishing drinking houses where wine was sold only on the premises. The tide turned again with the ascension to the throne of his son, Tsar Alexis (1645-1676), who allowed the building of one kabak in every town (and three in Moscow), which eventually multiplied of their own accord.

Perhaps more significantly, Tsar Alexis codified and institutionalized the state's monopoly over alcohol production and sale in his famous Law Code of 1649. Private production was to be punished brutally and all revenues from the sale of vodka went directly to the royal coffers.

This arrangement would continue more or less unchanged for nearly two hundred years, until another round of reforms, in 1861, removed the state monopoly on vodka production and sales, replacing it with an excise system. This hiatus of state control lasted just 33 years, but that was enough for some enterprising individuals -- most notably Pierre Smirnoff -- to become rich in the distilling business. In 1894, the state again gradually began to impose a state monopoly that was fairly complete by the time WWI began.

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