Boris Smirnov, great-great-grandson of Pyotr Smirnov, outside the building where the original Smirnov vodka was made.
Boris Smirnov, great-great-grandson of Pyotr Smirnov, stands outside of the building that his famous relative started producing vodka during the 1870’s in Moscow. After the Smirnov (Smirnovskaya) vodka won a number of Russian and international awards Pyotr Smirnov became the Russian Tsar’s official vodka supplier and one of the wealthiest merchants in Russia in the late 1800’s. Pyotr Smirnov died in November of 1898 and after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution the distillery at the cast-iron bridge was nationalized. The Smirnoff (Frenchified spelling of Smirnov) vodka has been produced in the United States since 1934. First by Vladimir Smirnoff, one of three sons of Pyotr Smirnov, then by Rudolph Kunnett and since 1939 by the Heublein Corporation and Diageo In 1992 Boris Smirnov and the Trading House of the Descendants of Smirnov started making Smirnov vodka in Russia again. Smirnoff vs. Smirnov, a dispute over who owns the right to the famous Smirnov (Smirnoff) name and the right to produce Vodka labeled with it started as a Moscow court case in 1993 and in 1997 the court ruled against Smirnoff. The Moscow court stated that only Smirnov had the exclusive right to use the family name on vodka in Russia. Photo by Chuck Nacke
Size: 5200px × 3865px
Location: Outside the distillery at the cast-iron bridge, Moscow Russia.
Photo credit: © Chuck Nacke / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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