The next major period in Pokhlebkin’s career begins in 1977, when Poland institutes a lawsuit, claiming that vodka was originally Polish, not Russian, and that the Russians should be required to pay a license fee for every bottle of vodka sold abroad. The Soviet Institute of History was called upon to produce a counterargument about the historical priority of Russian vodka. Although Pokhlebkin had been relieved of his duties in that institute and forced to seek work outside of the historical field for many years, he was summoned by the Institute of History and asked to write a history of vodka which would help the Soviet Union defend its case against Poland. This effort eventually resulted in Pokhlebkin’s book, A History of Vodka (История водки), which was written in the late 1970’s, but was only published in 1991, with translations into many languages, including English. Pokhlebkin was successful in his efforts and Russia was not forced to pay a duty to Poland for every bottle of export vodka. Many Russians consider this to be an important patriotic deed of Pokhlebkin, which saved many millions of dollars in potential export fees. On the other hand, there have been fierce debates about the historical merits of Pokhlebkin’s actual work on the chronological periods of vodka and distilling in Russia. In spite of certain critical articles in the press (both inside and outside Russia),
Pokhlebkin was internationally recognized for both his historical and culinary writings. In 986, he received the Urho Kekkonen Medal for his work on Finnish history and in 1993,
he received the Langhe Ceretto Prize for his culinary works, particularly his History of Vodka.
Originally Posted by Infinite
By rakia, do you mean this?
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. Yeah well it has not been proven that rakija is actually Turkish. It has unknown origins actually. I think it was first made by Ottomans in the Balkans, and therefore it's native to the Balkans, this is my theory only though !
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