Recently, the image of Comrade Stalin has been popular and gaining momentum. It seems that this firm and fair hand is missing. The time where they defeated the most terrible enemy and became an industrial power of world importance.
And what about without the image of Stalin with a pipe. Maybe he smoked something special? Now we will talk about this and look into the snuffbox of the leader of all times and peoples.
The most famous pipe smoker is undoubtedly Joseph Vissarionovich. His image in the eyes of any people will certainly evoke associations with a tobacco pipe.
The answer is simple and obvious, at least to those who at least once took an interest in the life and fate of Joseph Vissarionovich - this is "Herzegovina Flor". It should be noted that these cigarettes were made specially for the leader on a special order. An interesting fact is that Stalin usually filled his pipe with tobacco from cigarettes, and threw out the "sleeve".
This brand of cigarettes was produced in the pre-revolutionary years and was considered elite, the smell of smoking which caused admiration and a sense of prestige among the smoker.
As for tobacco, American varieties, for example Edgewood Sliced, were the favorites of the “leader of the nations”. The leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Georgiy Dimitrov, in 1936 brought a package of this tobacco as a gift to the leader from America. He was delighted with the gift, but lamented that "he doesn't know how long the doctors will allow him to smoke his pipe."
With the light hand of Soviet filmmakers, a picture took root in the mass consciousness: JV Stalin opens a pack of Herzegovina Flor cigarettes, pulls out one, crumples a sleeve, and fills his pipe with spilled tobacco. He may have done this a couple of times, but most likely infrequently. The fact is that a pipe needs special tobacco, large cut, otherwise it will either burn very quickly or will soon go out. The Soviet leader had the opportunity to smoke any kind of tobacco (for example, "Prince Albert" or "Edgeworth"), and he did not need to invent something. And he smoked cigarettes, and so, in the most usual way, the chronicle brought these historical moments to his contemporaries. It should be noted that there were almost no special workshops producing food for the Kremlin at that time; it is another matter that the purchases were made by a special department of government security. But thenthat "Herzegovina Flor" were JV Stalin's favorite cigarettes is really true.
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According to some reports, the leader was fond of tobacco for five decades, which he was not particularly ashamed of or shy about. The collection of Stalin's pipes is also striking, of which he had very, very many during his life. From brands of domestic manufacturers to the English Dunhill. Often, the collection of Stalin's pipes can be seen at special exhibitions dedicated to his life and period of rule. Some of the pipes in the collection have their own unique biography and history. Despite the widespread misconception, it was not only a pipe that Stalin smoked. He could not disdain the domestic cigarette, so he also preferred Bulgarian stamps. One of the preferred varieties was the American Edgewood Sliced.
There is a rumor that once Stalin gathered in his office all the important representatives of the match factories. In their presence, he demonstratively begins to take a box of matches out of his desk drawer, one at a time, while trying to light his pipe. One goes out, the other, and one by one the boxes are taken by the leader. And so on until the seventh attempt, until a match from the next box flared up with a bright light.
At the end of the “presentation”, the representatives were asked one question - ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS? After those present had no questions, and everyone absorbed the essence of the demonstration, Stalin silently dismissed all the representatives. Subsequently, Soviet matches became almost themselves reliable in the world.
Smoking is definitely harmful. This bad habit interferes with its adherent and those around him. However, many people have an uncontrollable craving for tobacco smoke, which is difficult to get rid of. Some make attempts to quit smoking, and later, on the basis of the experience gained, claim, like Mark Twain, that it is not difficult at all, and they themselves have done it many times.
The tobacco industry is an integral part of the food industry and the agro-industrial complex of many countries. Manufacturers usually value brands that have been known to consumers for many decades. One of them, "Herzegovina Flor", was born in Tsarist Russia, survived revolutions, two world wars, the era of Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, three more general secretaries, the collapse of the USSR and exists to this day. Its history is closely connected with the chronicle of the whole country.
Gabai Factory
This story could serve as an illustration of a theory about the enormous opportunities that capitalist free enterprise provides. After the wars with Turkey, Russia was enriched by a new ethnic group, namely the Karaite people, whose representatives were traditionally involved in the sale of tobacco. Crimean Samuil Gabai, having secured financial support from the Kharkov merchant Abraham Capon, created an enterprise in Moscow in the second half of the 19th century. This energetic person did not stop at the usual mediation, and invested profit in the development of his brainchild. Cigarettes at that time in Russia were just becoming fashionable, and in 1883 Gabai began their production. Successful competition required some kind of commercial "trick", and the owner of the S. Gabai Tobacco Factory Partnership found it. He began to import fragrant raw materials from the exotic Indonesian island of Java. The products really did have a delicate aroma, and it went well. By the beginning of the new century, Samuil Gabay was the owner of two production buildings, he changed the trademark, naming it after his most popular cigarettes "Java". It seemed that commercial success had been achieved, and one could rest on our laurels.
But the capitalist system requires constant development, and at the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century, a new product appeared in the assortment of Java - Herzegovina Flor cigarettes.
Scented tobacco
As in the case with Java, Samuel Gabay made the right marketing move. He named the new brand of cigarettes after the locality of the tobacco with which he stuffed his products. But in this case, the brand corresponded not only to the geographical location of the raw material plantations. In the Balkans, namely in Herzegovina, a special aromatic variety with a rich bouquet grew (if one can speak of such in relation to the suffocating smoke). In fact, the trade mark corresponded to the botanical name of the plant Herzegovina Flor (Herzegovina Flor), and today the seeds of this tobacco are presented on the profile market. Everyone can buy them and try to grow such a self-garden in their summer cottage. However, one should take into account the peculiarities of the climate and soil, otherwise everything would be very simple. In Russia, there are suitable conditions only in the Krasnodar Territory, where Virginia varieties are willingly growing.
New times
In 1917, events took place, after which marketing research for a long time lost all meaning. However, the harsh war communism was eventually replaced by some relaxation in the form of the New Economic Policy.
In the twenties, there was even a need for advertising, and the great proletarian poet, and concurrently the author of sonorous slogans, Vladimir Mayakovsky, even dedicated a couple of his ingenious words to the Herzegovina Flor cigarettes, rhyming with the TM name with the motto “give odds”. In the sense that everyone else is far from them. It is possible that he himself smoked this brand.
About cigarettes in general
During the hard years, which the history of our country of the 20th century is so rich in, tobacco products for the most part became in short supply. A relative exception was makhorka, which was part of the soldier's ration. Cigarettes "Belomorkanal" were considered a class lower than "Troika" or "Herzegovina Flor", tobacco was simpler, and the pack was much more modest, but this simple product of the Soviet food industry during the war was not available to everyone. The quality of the cigarettes produced in accordance with GOST at many factories of the USSR also differed. For example, the Leningrad "Belomor" was considered the best in the country; in Odessa, the famous "Salve" with a cotton filter in the mouthpiece (also an old-fashioned brand) were produced. In the first post-war years, some types of tobacco products were considered elite goods, they were even sold in Torgsiny.
After the Victory, equipment for the production of oval cigarettes without a filter was removed from Germany for reparations, some of which are still produced today (Polet, Nord, Sever, Priboy, Prima, in Ukraine Vatra, Priluki and etc.). They are supposed to be smoked through the mouthpiece, but you can do that, only you often have to spit out tobacco crumbs. But the majority of high-ranking party workers preferred, in imitation of the leader, Herzegovina Flor cigarettes. Cigarettes en masse took over the Soviet tobacco market later when they were supplied with a filter.
Such a famous (mainly thanks to films about Stalin) brand of cigarettes could not just sink into oblivion. The modern products manufactured at Morshansk Tobacco Factory are characterized by very good quality, although in terms of recipes they have little in common with the prototype. Balkan tobacco is not supplied for them, other varieties are used that are pleasant for smokers, but the aroma, according to experts, is not the same. Under this brand, ordinary filter cigarettes were also produced, but this innovation somehow did not take root.
WHY LENIN QUITS SMOKING
The leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), as evidenced by some memoirs, at one time smoked. It was, according to the authors, around 1887. It is believed that he quickly started smoking and quit quickly, and then even talked about the dangers of smoking. Fyodor Solodov, a cadet of the first Kremlin machine-gun courses, recalled the legendary subbotnik on May 1, 1920, the very one on which Ilyich was carrying a log:
- Once during the rest, everyone sat on a log. Vladimir Ilyich also sat down with us. We lit a cigarette. Ilyich looked at us and said: “Well, what good do you find in this smoke? After all, tobacco is poison. It destroys your health. " And we, in turn, asked him: "Have you, Vladimir Ilyich, ever smoked?" - “Yes, in my youth I somehow lit a cigarette, but I quit and didn't do it anymore.”