The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire (P.S.) - Softcover

Himelstein, Linda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060855916 ISBN 13: 9780060855918

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2010

Synopsis

Born in a Russian village in 1831, Pyotr Smirnov relied on vodka to turn a life of scarcity and anonymity into one of immense wealth and international recognition. Starting from the back rooms and side streets of nineteeth-century Moscow, Smirnov exploited brilliant grassroots marketing strategies to popularize his products and ensconce his brand in the thirsts and imaginations of drinkers around the world. His vodka would be gulped in the taverns of Russia and Europe, be praised with accolades at world fairs, and become a staple on the tables of tsars. But his improbable ascent would be halted by the chaos of the Bolshevik Revolution, and only a bizarre set of coincidences—including an incredible prison escape by one of Smirnov’s sons in 1919—would prevent Smirnov’s legacy from fading into obscurity.

Set against a backdrop of political and ideological currents that would determine the course of global events, The King of Vodka is much more than a biography of a humble serf who rose to create one of the most celebrated business empires the world has ever known. It is a work of sweeping narrative history on an epic scale.

About this title

About the Author

Linda Himelstein began her career in the Washington bureau of The Wall Street Journal before working at The San Francisco Recorder and Legal Times. In 1993 she joined BusinessWeek as legal affairs editor, writing about a wide array of topics, including the tobacco industry and Wall Street. One of her cover stories helped BusinessWeek win the National Magazine Award. Later, as the magazine's Silicon Valley bureau chief, she wrote about the infancies of eBay, Yahoo!, and other companies. She lives with her family in Northern California.

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Alexander F. Remington Smirnoff Vodka was originally founded by Pyotr Smirnov, a former serf who rose to be vodka maker to the tsar; shortly after his death, his empire crumbled, thanks to a tsarist vodka nationalization, incompetent leadership by his callow children and the Bolshevik revolution. The brand name reemerged years later (with the "v" changed to "ff") after being sold to the West -- possibly illegally -- by one of Smirnoff's sons, who was nearly penniless after having fled the Soviet Union. It's a good story told poorly. Himelstein is a business journalist, but she sheds little light on either the brand or the man. The documentary evidence (much of which was destroyed by communists) has frequent gaps, the atonal prose offers little analysis, and she has nothing but praise for Smirnov himself, reckoning him blameless for the destructive behavior of his children, who drove the business into the ground. The brand's American success at the height of the Cold War (with ad slogans like "Smirnoff White Whiskey -- No Smell, No Taste") would be a fascinating story in itself, but feels anticlimactic here, occurring as it does long after the death of the protagonist.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0060855916
• ISBN 13: 9780060855918
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 448