Stalin crushed ordinary cigarettes into his pipe. Smoking and leaders. Serious consequences of light cigarettes

Each society has its own traditions, including those based on the habits and examples of government leaders, especially charismatic ones who have been in power for a long time. And in the USSR, from 1922 (when Stalin became secretary general) to 1982 (the death of Brezhnev), out of 60 years, 52 years of active smoking were in power.

WHY LENIN QUIT SMOKING

The leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), as some memoirs testify, at one time smoked. This was, according to the authors, around 1887. It is believed that he quickly started smoking and quickly quit, 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 same one on which Ilyich carried the log:

One day, while resting, everyone sat down on a log. Vladimir Ilyich also sat with us. We started smoking. 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 once started smoking, but I quit and didn’t do it anymore.”

STALIN: FROM PIPE TO CIGARS

But Lenin’s successor as head of the Communist Party and the Soviet state, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, smoked for almost fifty years and was not at all embarrassed about it. In Soviet films and most literary works, as a rule, only one type of smoking Stalin appears - with a pipe, and always filled with Herzegovina Flor tobacco. According to many authors, the “leader of the peoples” either shook tobacco from cigarettes into a pipe, or simply broke them, pouring the contents into the pipe.

In fact, the Secretary General smoked not only a pipe filled with tobacco from cigarettes, but also simply tobacco from packs, cigarettes - both ours and Bulgarian, as well as Havana cigars.

As for tobacco, the “leader of the peoples” loved American varieties, for example Edgewood Sliced. The leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Georgi Dimitrov, brought a package of this tobacco as a gift to the leader from America in 1936. He was delighted with the gift, but complained that “he doesn’t know how much longer the doctors will allow him to smoke his pipe.”

Valentin Berezhkov, a famous Soviet diplomat and one of Stalin's translators, recalled that the “leader of the peoples” no longer smoked a pipe during the Tehran Conference in 1943:

“He was in a marshal’s uniform, but, as always, sloppy: in wrinkled trousers and in his usual Caucasian soft boots. He did not smoke a pipe (the doctors forbade him), but Herzegovina Flor cigarettes.

In old age, doctors really did not recommend Stalin to smoke, but he did not always listen to these recommendations. In the family archive of A. N. Shefov, one of the authors of the book “Stalin’s Near Dacha,” there is a fragment of a recording of his conversation with the commandant of the dacha in Volynsky, I. M. Orlov. He talked about the window of the Small Dining Room, which overlooked the southern veranda of the dacha:

“This window had a small window at the bottom, on the right side. In recent years, Stalin, out of long-standing habit, opened it, took cigarettes from the table and smoked, and shook the ashes into the window, and not into the ashtray, since at that time the doctors had already forbidden him to smoke. The officers on duty constantly found tobacco ash in the window: the fact is that an insect net was attached behind the window. The security officers reported their findings to Stalin, showing that the ashes remained on the windowsill. “Sorry,” he answered, “next time I’ll be more careful.”

The historical guidebook “Stalin’s Near Dacha” tells about the arsenal of Stalin the smoker, located in the Small Dining Room:

Most often it was located at the left corner of the table closest to the entrance door. At the place where the Master sat, sharply sharpened colored pencils (usually 14 pieces) and notebooks were laid out. There are also boxes of Soviet Herzegovina Flor and Bulgarian Lux cigarettes, Havana cigars, chimney sweeps, and matches.

According to some authors, Stalin broke Havana cigars into three parts, crushed them with his fingers and filled his pipe with tobacco. Ashtrays, pipes, cigarettes, cigars and packs of tobacco were in all rooms, even on the second floor of the dacha, where Stalin rarely went up. Smoker's accessories were present even in the town's playground, not to mention the billiard room and bathhouse. And Stalin quit smoking three and a half months before his death, which, however, did not benefit him...

THE LAST SECRETARY GENERAL TO SMOKE WAS BREZHNEV

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, who replaced Stalin as the leader of the country and the Communist Party, did not note any special “merits” in relation to smoking. I didn’t smoke myself, but I turned a blind eye to how others did it. Sometimes, as Alexey Alekseevich Salnikov, who worked in his security, recalled, he chased away smokers, but without fanaticism. But the “first marshal” Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov was a real hater of smoking. They say that as a child he argued “who could smoke more” and lost consciousness. Voroshilov’s security guard Viktor Kuzovlev recalled:

Voroshilov was not capricious, he never pulled any tricks (such as hiding from a bodyguard unnoticed). The only thing was that I couldn’t stand smokers. I remember once during a ski trip we met a guy with a cigarette in his mouth (a resident of a nearby village). Voroshilov stopped him, took the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it into the snow, shaming him: “How can you, young man, ski and smoke...”

A fanatical hater of smoking was the “gray eminence” of the CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail Andreevich Suslov. Even the heavy smoker, General Secretary of the Central Committee Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, was afraid of him. When Suslov was supposed to enter his office, according to the recollections of the guards, he immediately put out his cigarette and ordered the room to be ventilated: “Misha doesn’t like it when it’s smoky!” Even while watching hockey matches, when a “smoke break” during a break was something of a ritual for members of the Politburo headed by the Secretary General, even ashtrays were removed in Suslov’s presence.

The son-in-law of the General Secretary, Yuri Mikhailovich Churbanov, told me back in the late nineties about what and how Brezhnev smoked:

Leonid Ilyich smoked for quite a long time, probably since the war. In those years when I met him, he smoked two types of cigarettes: “Novost” and “Krasnopresnenskie”, more, of course, “Novost”. And when doctors forbade him to smoke, he snatched cigarettes from his guards, his comrades, and his relatives. Once I was with him at Luzhniki at a hockey game, and during a break he asked me: “Yura, do you have any cigarettes?” I say: “Yes, Leonid Ilyich.” He: “Let me light a cigarette.” Of course, I took out a pack (I was smoking Kent at that time), and gave it to him. He took a cigarette, I flicked the lighter and gave him a light. He took a drag and said: “You Yura, don’t smoke these cigarettes...” Maybe he didn’t like the taste, maybe they were too light for him. From then on, I carried my cigarettes in one pocket and “Stolichnye” cigarettes for my father-in-law in the other. He shot them with pleasure..."

Viktor Sukhodrev, who was Brezhnev’s personal translator for many years, said that when doctors began to forbid him from smoking, he initially decided to limit his daily intake. And then in one of the technical departments of the KGB they made him a beautiful dark green cigarette case with a timer and a lock. After he took a cigarette, he was “allowed” to have another cigarette case only after 45 minutes.

And when Brezhnev finally gave up smoking, he asked the guards who were constantly next to him to “smoke him.” Vladimir Medvedev, deputy chief of the general's personal security, recalled:

Even when he held the Politburo, he asked:

Sit next to me and smoke.

Of course, not all members of the Politburo - the elderly - liked this, there were also non-smokers, but no one dared to object...

But at some army meetings or party and economic assets, the picture looked amazing. The local party leadership is sitting, everything is decorous and noble, and we, the guards, in the presence of the general, are smoking and tarring right behind him...

Brezhnev did not change his habits during meetings with foreign leaders. Viktor Sukhodrev wrote in his memoirs that the Secretary General suddenly began to worry during negotiations, looked at the non-smoking Foreign Minister Gromyko and Aleksandrov’s assistant Agentov sitting nearby, and then turned to Sukhodrev:

Vitya, but you smoke! Light a cigarette, please!

I lit a cigarette, but, naturally, I tried to blow the smoke away from him. Then Brezhnev again asked:

Well, not the same! Smoke on me!..

The picture was surreal: during the negotiations, an interpreter sits at the head of the table, brazenly lights a cigarette, and even blows smoke in the face of the leader of his country.

And what after Brezhnev? Andropov did not smoke, Chernenko, in the year when he headed the party and was the first person in the state, was seriously ill and had no time for it. Gorbachev was also not a smoker, nor was the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin. And Vladimir Putin even became famous for passing a modern medical test that showed that he does not smoke. And, by the way, I raised the issue of smokers in the government. One day he asked which member of his government smoked and said the following phrase:

How will you fight? We must fight by personal example! Why are you laughing? You also smoke, you also need to quit. Please.

How can one not recall the now classic anecdote about the meeting between the prime ministers of Russia and Japan:

The Japanese Prime Minister asks Putin:

What can you say about the Kuril Islands?

Putin, without hesitation for a second, answered:

You know, I didn’t smoke, and I don’t advise you to either. You will be healthier...

In preparing the material, the memories of employees of the 9th Directorate of the KGB, Yuri Churbanov, and the book by Viktor Sukhodrev “My language is my friend” were used. From Khrushchev to Gorbachev,” Fyodor Solodov’s story “At the Subbotnik” from the book “For Children about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”, memories of Svetlana Alliluyeva “Twenty Letters to a Friend”, book by Sergei Devyatov, Alexander Shefov, Yuri Yuryev “Stalin’s Near Dacha”, magazine materials “Antiques” (No. 1 - 2 for 2003)

Let's discuss!

On June 1, 2013, a law prohibiting smoking in all indoor public places came into force.

When I read that our country is the most smoking country in the world, this does not surprise me at all. We do not lead the healthiest lifestyle not only because it is quite expensive and is a privilege of more developed countries. It’s just that each state has its own traditions, including those based on the habits and examples of state leaders. And in the USSR, from 1922 (when Stalin became secretary general) to 1982 (when Brezhnev died), with the exception of Khrushchev’s 8-year reign, there were demonstrably smoking people in power.

How long would Lenin have lived if he had smoked?

Whether Lenin ever smoked or did not smoke is still unknown. There are only two references to the leader's bad habit that are available to researchers. But, let me make a reservation right away, they could well have been invented solely for propaganda purposes. So, the classic version says that the first time young Volodya Ulyanov lit a cigarette was in 1887. And he quit almost immediately. Moreover, he publicly spoke out about the dangers of smoking. A cadet of the first Kremlin machine gun courses, Fyodor Solodov, in his book “For Children about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin,” recalled the legendary subbotnik on May 1, 1920, the same one on which the leader carried a log, like this: “Once during a rest, everyone sat down on a log. us and Vladimir Ilyich. We lit a cigarette. Ilyich looked at us and said:

Well, what do you find good 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 once started smoking, but I quit and never did it again.”

A few years later, the theme of Lenin’s smoking was creatively conceptualized by Mikhail Zoshchenko in the main children’s book of the times of socialism, “Stories about Lenin”: “When Lenin was seventeen years old, he began to smoke. He was already a student then. And it was not surprising that he became smoking. This is when some little boy of twelve years old smokes - this is terrible. And many students smoke. And let them smoke - they are already adults. And his comrades, students, came to Lenin every now and then. And almost everyone smoked. It happened, They'll lock themselves in a room, talk, argue, converse, and they themselves smoke like steam locomotives. Well, thanks to this, Lenin also began to get used to smoking...

And Lenin’s mother, Maria Alexandrovna, was the daughter of a doctor. And she understood that smoking is very harmful. And she was very upset that her beloved son got used to smoking. And she repeatedly asked her son to quit this habit. But Vladimir Ilyich just smiled and said:

Nothing! I'm healthy. It's not very harmful to me...

And then one day she deliberately told him:

We live on the pension that I receive after the death of your father, Ilya Nikolaevich. Our pension is small. Every extra expense affects the household. And although your cigarettes are inexpensive, it would still be better for the household if you didn’t smoke...

After listening to these words from his mother, Vladimir Ilyich replied:

Oh, sorry, mom! I didn't think about this. Okay, I'll quit smoking today.

And with these words, Vladimir Ilyich pulled cigarettes out of his pocket and put them on the table. And I never touched them again."
Very touching, although hardly reliable. One way or another, giving up smoking did not save the leader of the revolution from death at 53 years old. But his smoking successor lived to be 74.

How long would Stalin have lived if he had not smoked?

In the photo: the leader of the revolution allowed Leon Trotsky (to the right of Lenin) to smoke (photo by RIA Novosti)

It is known that Stalin smoked for almost fifty years and was not shy about it. It is traditionally believed that the “leader of the peoples” preferred a pipe, and always filled with Herzegovina Flor tobacco.

Many people remembered how Stalin smoked a pipe. Vice-President of Yugoslavia Milovan Djilas, who visited the “father of nations” more than once (in 1944 and 1948), wrote in his book “Conversations with Stalin”: “This was not the majestic Stalin from photographs or from documentaries - with slow, thoughtful gait and gestures. He did not remain calm for a minute - he was busy with a pipe with a white dot from the English company Dunhill.

I saw this same Dunhill pipe at the Blizhnaya dacha in Volynskoye. But in fact, Stalin had quite a lot of pipes, both domestic and foreign made. Numerous pipes have formed a fairly extensive collection, which is sometimes put on public display.

Most of them have a biography. Thus, a pipe in the shape of Napoleon’s head was presented to the Secretary General by the leader of the Hungarian communists, Matthias Rakosi. Another unusual pipe - in the shape of a fist - was donated by the family of anti-fascist Victor Gidon, who died in a concentration camp. The famous pilot Marina Raskova recalled that she and Valentina Grizodubova gave him a Nanai walrus ivory pipe during a meeting with Stalin. There were also foreign samples from Peterson, Chacom and Savinelli.

In fact, Stalin smoked more than just a pipe. He, as his comrades testify, smoked cigarette tobacco, and tobacco from packs, and domestic cigarettes, and Bulgarian ones... And even Havana cigars, which he could barbarously break into three parts depending on the mood, crush them, and stuff the leaves crushed between his fingers into a pipe. .
As for tobacco, the “leader of the peoples”’ favorites were not just any Sukhumi varieties, but American varieties, for example Edgewood Sliced. The leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Georgi Dimitrov, brought a package of this tobacco as a gift to the leader from America in 1936. He was delighted with the gift, but complained that “he doesn’t know how long the doctors will allow him to smoke his pipe.”

Valentin Berezhkov, a famous Soviet diplomat and one of Stalin’s translators, recalled that he gave up his pipe already during the Tehran Conference in 1943: “I didn’t smoke a pipe (the doctors forbade him), but Herzegovina Flor cigarettes.”

In old age, doctors recommended that Stalin not smoke at all, but he did not always listen to these recommendations. Then he finally gave up. Svetlana Alliluyeva recalled how, at the insistence of doctors, at the end of 1952, Stalin finally gave up smoking completely: “Apparently, he felt signs of illness, perhaps hypertension - since he unexpectedly quit smoking and was very proud of it - he smoked "Probably at least fifty years."

The historical guidebook “Stalin’s Near Dacha” tells about the arsenal of Stalin the smoker, located in the Small Dining Room: “Most often it was located at the left corner of the table closest to the entrance door. At the place where the Owner sat, sharply sharpened colored pencils (usually 14 pieces) and notepads. There are also boxes of Soviet Herzegovina Flor and Bulgarian Lux cigarettes, Havana cigars, chimney sweeps, matches."
Ashtrays, pipes, cigarettes, cigars and packs of tobacco were in all rooms, even on the second floor of the dacha, where Stalin rarely went up. Smoker's accessories were present even in the town's playground, not to mention the billiard room and bathhouse.

Stalin quit smoking three and a half months before his death.

Marshal to follow

I have read and heard many times that the “first marshal”, long-term People’s Commissar of Defense, member of the Politburo and Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee with 34 years of experience and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, that is, practically the second person in the state, Kliment Voroshilov was a real hater of smoking. I first heard the version that he himself “only dabbled in tobacco” in the Voroshilov Museum in Lugansk. The guide spoke in some detail about how healthy Kliment Efremovich led a lifestyle, how he went in for sports himself and involved others in these activities, how in his youth he showed remarkable willpower and gave up smoking. Another version: little Klim Voroshilov allegedly argued with his comrades about “who could smoke more” and lost consciousness. After this incident, according to experts in the biography of the twice Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labor, he gave up smoking forever.

Later, historian Elena Eroshkina from the same Voroshilov Museum in Lugansk said: “During a visit to one of the factories, already being a marshal, Kliment Efremovich fell behind the management accompanying him and went through the workshops. At the stairs he met a woman smoking. In response to his reproaches, she said: “I smoke because life is not going well.” Voroshilov questioned her and said that he would help solve the problems, but... only if she quit smoking.”
The fact that the “first marshal” in the sixties had a very negative attitude towards smoking citizens was recalled by his guard, officer of the 9th Directorate of the KGB of the USSR Viktor Kuzovlev: “The only thing was that he couldn’t stand smokers. I remember once during a ski trip we met a guy with a cigarette in his mouth (a resident of a nearby village). Voroshilov stopped him, took the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it into the snow, shaming him: “How can you, young man, ski and smoke...”

In general, the picture was blissful: I did not smoke myself and did not give it to others... I, however, had a suspicion that the biographers embellished the reality. And in fact, in one of the albums with photographs of Stalin, Evgeniy Ramensky, the chief specialist of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) on film and photo documents, and I found a previously unknown photo. It depicts Joseph Stalin with a pipe and Klim Voroshilov with a cigarette in his teeth. The photo clearly shows that the smoking process gives both members of the Politburo exceptional pleasure. And this happens, as the archival annotation to the photo says, during the parade dedicated to the Day of the USSR Air Fleet in August 1935... So the “first marshal” still smoked even at a conscious age.

Leonid Brezhnev : no smoking is not for us

The popularity of smoking increased sharply during the Brezhnev era. The range of tobacco products expanded, and almost any type became available to Soviet citizens: from shag to Marlboro. It was under Leonid Ilyich that “joint” Soyuz-Apollo cigarettes appeared in 1975, the release of which was timed to coincide with the first Soviet-American space flight. They were quite expensive at that time, about one and a half rubles per pack, but they sold out instantly. And after the Moscow Olympics, licensed (Yugoslav and Finnish) cigarettes of various brands from “Kent” to “Salem” appeared.
The future general secretary began smoking in his youth. His son-in-law, Yuri Mikhailovich Churbanov, in the late nineties told me about what and how Brezhnev smoked: “Leonid Ilyich smoked for quite a long time, probably since the war. In those years when I met him, he smoked two types of cigarettes: "Novost" and "Krasnopresnenskie", more, of course, "Novost". And when doctors forbade him to smoke, he "shot" cigarettes from security guards, colleagues, and relatives. Once I was with him at Luzhniki at a hockey game , and during the break he asks me: “Yura, do you have any cigarettes?” I say: “Yes, Leonid Ilyich.” He: “Let me light a cigarette.” I, of course, took out a pack (I was smoking at that time.” Kent"), I give it to him. He took a cigarette, I clicked the lighter, gave him a light. He took a drag and said: “You, Yura, don’t smoke these cigarettes...” Maybe he didn’t like the taste, maybe they were too light were for him. Since then, I carried my cigarettes in one pocket, and “Stolichnye” cigarettes for my father-in-law in the other. He “shot” them with pleasure..."

Leonid Ilyich could not resist smoking even during a hockey match, and right in the government box of the Luzhniki Stadium. Valentin Valentinov, the most famous referee-informant of Soviet times, who made announcements during hockey matches, recalled that in the early seventies, smoking was banned in the Sports Palace, and even in the toilets - smokers were kicked out into the street. And he was instructed to make an announcement: “Dear comrades, spectators! There is no smoking in our Sports Palace.”

Brezhnev, despite this, in front of the twelve thousandth stadium, sitting in a box, clicked a gold lighter and began to smoke. According to the recollections of the deputy head of his security, Vladimir Medvedev, he said about the advertisements: “This is not for us!” The Nine employees had to approach the announcer and ask Valentin Valentinov not to utter this phrase in the presence of Brezhnev...

Viktor Sukhodrev, who was Brezhnev’s personal translator for many years, said that when doctors began to forbid him from smoking, he initially refused
I wanted to limit my daily intake. And then in one of the technical departments of the KGB they made him a beautiful dark green cigarette case with a timer and a lock. After he took a cigarette, he was “allowed” to have another cigarette case only after 45 minutes.

When Brezhnev finally gave up smoking, he asked the guards who were constantly next to him to “smoke him.” Vladimir Medvedev recalled that the guards, at the request of Leonid Ilyich, smoked while sitting behind him, even during meetings.

And Viktor Sukhodrev wrote in his memoirs: “Sometimes the Secretary General, even during negotiations, suddenly began to worry, looked at the non-smoking Minister of Foreign Affairs Gromyko and assistant Aleksandrov-Agentov sitting nearby, and then turned to Sukhodrev: “Vitya, but you smoke! Light a cigarette, please!"

I lit a cigarette, but, naturally, I tried to blow the smoke away from him. Then Brezhnev again asked:

Well, not the same! Smoke on me!..

The picture was surreal: during the negotiations, an interpreter sits at the head of the table, brazenly lights a cigarette, and even blows smoke in the face of the leader of his country.”
But after Brezhnev, sick people who had no time for smoking came to power. Neither Yuri Andropov nor Konstantin Chernenko smoked. The healthier Mikhail Gorbachev was also not a smoker, nor was the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. And Vladimir Putin, who replaced him, even passed a modern medical test, proving to the public that he does not smoke.

Recently, the image of Comrade Stalin has been popular and gaining momentum. It feels like this firm and fair hand is missing. That time where they defeated the most terrible enemy and became an industrial power of global importance.

And what would we do without the image of Stalin with a pipe? Maybe he was smoking 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, without a doubt, is 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 have at least once been interested in the life and fate of Joseph Vissarionovich - this is “Herzegovina Flor”. It is worth noting that these cigarettes were made specifically for the leader by special order. An interesting fact is that Stalin usually filled his pipe with tobacco from cigarettes and threw away the “case.”

This brand of cigarettes was produced back in the pre-revolutionary years and was considered elite, the smell from smoking which aroused the admiration and sense of prestige of the smoker among others.

As for tobacco, the “leader of the peoples” loved American varieties, for example Edgewood Sliced. The leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Georgi Dimitrov, brought a package of this tobacco as a gift to the leader from America in 1936. He was delighted with the gift, but complained that “he doesn’t know how much longer the doctors will allow him to smoke his pipe.”

Thanks to the light hand of Soviet film directors, a picture has taken root in the mass consciousness: I.V. Stalin opens a pack of Herzegovina Flor cigarettes, takes one out, crushes the sleeve, and fills his pipe with the spilled tobacco. He may have done this a couple of times, but most likely not often. The fact is that the pipe requires special tobacco, coarsely cut, otherwise it will either burn very quickly or soon go out. The Soviet leader had the opportunity to smoke any type of tobacco (for example, Prince Albert or Edgeworth), and he did not need to invent anything. And he smoked cigarettes, and so, in the most ordinary way, the chronicle conveyed these historical moments to his contemporaries. It should be noted that there were almost no special workshops producing products for the Kremlin at that time; another thing is that purchases were made by a special department of government security. But it is indeed true that “Herzegovina Flor” was J.V. Stalin’s favorite cigarettes.

According to some reports, the leader was fond of tobacco for five decades, which he was not particularly ashamed or embarrassed about. The collection of Stalin’s pipes is also amazing, of which he had very, very many during his life. From brands of domestic manufacturers to English Dunhill. Often a 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 popular misconception, it was not just the pipe that Stalin smoked. He could not disdain domestic cigarettes; he also gave preference to Bulgarian brands. One of the preferred varieties was the American Edgewood Sliced.

There is a rumor that Stalin once gathered all the important representatives of match factories in his office. In front of them, he demonstratively begins to take out a box of matches from his desk drawer, one at a time, while trying to light his pipe. One after another goes out, and one by one the boxes are taken by the leader. And so on until the seventh attempt, until the match from the next box flared with bright light.
At the end of the “presentation”, the representatives were asked one question - ANY QUESTIONS? After those present had no questions, and the essence of the demonstration was absorbed by everyone, Stalin silently dismissed all representatives. Subsequently, Soviet matches became almost the most reliable in the world.
Smoking is definitely harmful. This bad habit bothers both the adherent and the people around him. However, many people suffer from an uncontrollable craving for tobacco smoke, which is quite difficult to get rid of. Some people make attempts to quit smoking, and later, based on their experience, they claim, like Mark Twain, that it is not at all difficult, and they themselves have done it many times.

The tobacco industry is an integral part of the food industry and 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 entire country.

Gabay Factory
This story could illustrate a theory about the enormous opportunities afforded by capitalist free enterprise. After the wars with Turkey, Russia was enriched by a new ethnic group, namely the Karaite people, whose representatives were traditionally engaged in the sale of tobacco. Crimean Samuil Gabay, having secured the financial support of the Kharkov merchant Abraham Kapon, created an enterprise in Moscow in the second half of the 19th century. This energetic man did not stop at ordinary mediation and invested the profits in the development of his brainchild. At that time, cigarettes were just becoming fashionable in Russia, and in 1883 Gabay began their production. For successful competition, some kind of commercial “trick” was required, 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 had a subtle aroma, and things went well. By the beginning of the new century, Samuil Gabay was already the owner of two production buildings; he changed the brand, naming it in honor of his most popular cigarettes “Java”. It seemed that commercial success had been achieved and we 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 Java assortment - Herzegovina Flor cigarettes.

Fragrant tobacco
As in the case of “Java”, Samuil Gabay made the right marketing move. He named the new brand of cigarettes after the area of ​​origin of the tobacco he stuffed his products with. But in this case, the brand corresponded not only to the geographical location of raw material plantations. In the Balkans, namely in Herzegovina, a special aromatic variety with a rich bouquet grew (if such a thing can be said in relation to choking smoke). In fact, the trademark corresponded to the botanical name of the plant Herzegovina Flor, and today the seeds of this tobacco are presented on the specialized market. Anyone can purchase them and try to grow such a self-garden on their own dacha plot. However, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of climate and soil, otherwise everything would be very simple. In Russia, suitable conditions exist only in the Krasnodar Territory, where Virginia varieties also readily grow.

New times
In 1917, events occurred after which marketing research lost all meaning for a long time. 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 part-time author of sonorous slogans, Vladimir Mayakovsky, even dedicated a couple of his brilliant words to the Herzegovina Flor cigarettes, rhyming with the name of TM the motto “will give a head start.” 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 years of hard times, with which the history of our country of the 20th century is so rich, tobacco products for the most part became in short supply. A relative exception was shag, which was included in the soldiers' rations. Belomorkanal cigarettes were considered a lower class than Troika or Herzegovina Flor, the tobacco was simpler, and the pack was much more modest, but even this simple product of the Soviet food industry during the war was not available to everyone. The quality of cigarettes produced in accordance with GOST standards in many factories of the USSR also varied. For example, the Leningrad “Belomor” was considered the best in the country; the famous “Salve” with a cotton filter in the mouthpiece (also an old-fashioned brand) was produced in Odessa. In the first post-war years, some types of tobacco products were considered an elite product, they were even sold in Torgsin.

After the Victory, equipment for the production of oval cigarettes without a filter was exported from Germany as reparations, some of which are still produced today (“Polyot”, “Nord”, “North”, Priboy”, “Prima”, in Ukraine “Vatra”, “Priluki” " and etc.). They are supposed to be smoked through a mouthpiece, but this is also possible, but you often have to spit out the tobacco crumbs. But the majority of high-ranking party workers preferred, in imitation of the leader, Herzegovina Flor cigarettes. Cigarettes massively captured the Soviet tobacco market later, when they were equipped with a filter.
Such a famous (mainly thanks to films about Stalin) brand of cigarettes could not just sink into oblivion. Modern products produced at the Morshansk Tobacco Factory are characterized by very good quality, although in terms of recipe they have little in common with the prototype. Balkan tobacco is not supplied to them; other varieties are used that are pleasant for smokers, but the aroma, as experts admit, is not the same. Regular filter cigarettes were also produced under this brand, but this innovation somehow did not catch on.

WHY LENIN QUIT SMOKING

The leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), as some memoirs testify, at one time smoked. This was, according to the authors, around 1887. It is believed that he quickly started smoking and quickly quit, 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 same one on which Ilyich carried the log:

One day, while resting, everyone sat down on a log. Vladimir Ilyich also sat with us. We started smoking. 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 once started smoking, but I quit and didn’t do it anymore.”

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Recently, the image of Comrade Stalin has been popular and gaining momentum. It feels like this firm and fair hand is missing. That time where they defeated the most terrible enemy and became an industrial power of global importance.
And what would we do without the image of Stalin with a pipe? Maybe he was smoking 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, without a doubt, is 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 have at least once been interested in the life and fate of Joseph Vissarionovich - this is “Herzegovina Flor”. It is worth noting that these cigarettes were made specifically for the leader by special order. An interesting fact is that Stalin usually filled his pipe with tobacco from cigarettes and threw away the “case.”

This brand of cigarettes was produced back in the pre-revolutionary years and was considered elite, the smell from smoking which aroused the admiration and sense of prestige of the smoker among others.
As for tobacco, the “leader of the peoples” loved American varieties, for example Edgewood Sliced. The leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Georgi Dimitrov, brought a package of this tobacco as a gift to the leader from America in 1936. He was delighted with the gift, but complained that “he doesn’t know how much longer the doctors will allow him to smoke his pipe.”
Thanks to the light hand of Soviet film directors, a picture has taken root in the mass consciousness: I.V. Stalin opens a pack of Herzegovina Flor cigarettes, takes one out, crushes the sleeve, and fills his pipe with the spilled tobacco. He may have done this a couple of times, but most likely not often. The fact is that the pipe requires special tobacco, coarsely cut, otherwise it will either burn very quickly or soon go out. The Soviet leader had the opportunity to smoke any type of tobacco (for example, Prince Albert or Edgeworth), and he did not need to invent anything. And he smoked cigarettes, and so, in the most ordinary way, the chronicle conveyed these historical moments to his contemporaries. It should be noted that there were almost no special workshops producing products for the Kremlin at that time; another thing is that purchases were made by a special department of government security. But it is indeed true that “Herzegovina Flor” was J.V. Stalin’s favorite cigarettes.
According to some reports, the leader was fond of tobacco for five decades, which he was not particularly ashamed or embarrassed about. The collection of Stalin’s pipes is also amazing, of which he had very, very many during his life. From brands of domestic manufacturers to English Dunhill. Often a 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 popular misconception, it was not just the pipe that Stalin smoked. He could not disdain domestic cigarettes; he also gave preference to Bulgarian brands. One of the preferred varieties was the American Edgewood Sliced.

There is a rumor that Stalin once gathered all the important representatives of match factories in his office. In front of them, he demonstratively begins to take out a box of matches from his desk drawer, one at a time, while trying to light his pipe. One after another goes out, and one by one the boxes are taken by the leader. And so on until the seventh attempt, until the match from the next box flared with bright light.
At the end of the “presentation”, the representatives were asked one question – ANY QUESTIONS? After those present had no questions, and the essence of the demonstration was absorbed by everyone, Stalin silently dismissed all representatives. Subsequently, Soviet matches became almost the most reliable in the world.
Smoking is definitely harmful. This bad habit bothers both the adherent and the people around him. However, many people suffer from an uncontrollable craving for tobacco smoke, which is quite difficult to get rid of. Some people make attempts to quit smoking, and later, based on their experience, they claim, like Mark Twain, that it is not at all difficult, and they themselves have done it many times.
The tobacco industry is an integral part of the food industry and agro-industrial complex in 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 entire country.
Gabay Factory
This story could illustrate a theory about the enormous opportunities afforded by capitalist free enterprise. After the wars with Turkey, Russia was enriched by a new ethnic group, namely the Karaite people, whose representatives were traditionally engaged in the sale of tobacco. Crimean Samuil Gabay, having secured the financial support of the Kharkov merchant Abraham Kapon, created an enterprise in Moscow in the second half of the 19th century. This energetic man did not stop at ordinary mediation and invested the profits in the development of his brainchild. At that time, cigarettes were just becoming fashionable in Russia, and in 1883 Gabay began their production. To compete successfully...

Some kind of commercial trick was needed, 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 had a subtle aroma, and things went well. By the beginning of the new century, Samuil Gabay was already the owner of two production buildings; he changed the brand, naming it in honor of his most popular cigarettes “Java”. It seemed that commercial success had been achieved and we 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 Java assortment - Herzegovina Flor cigarettes.
Fragrant tobacco
As in the case of “Java”, Samuil Gabay made the right marketing move. He named the new brand of cigarettes after the area of ​​origin of the tobacco he stuffed his products with. But in this case, the brand corresponded not only to the geographical location of raw material plantations. In the Balkans, namely in Herzegovina, a special aromatic variety with a rich bouquet grew (if such a thing can be said in relation to choking smoke). In fact, the trademark corresponded to the botanical name of the plant Herzegovina Flor, and today the seeds of this tobacco are presented on the specialized market. Anyone can purchase them and try to grow such a self-garden on their own dacha plot. However, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of climate and soil, otherwise everything would be very simple. In Russia, suitable conditions exist only in the Krasnodar Territory, where Virginia varieties also readily grow.