Vodka War

The conversation whether it was Poland or Russia who invented Vodka has always been debatable due to the lack or very little historic evidence present to support this debate.

While researching the topic I stumbled upon a documentary “Who Really Invented Vodka”, which got to my attention that 1977 was the first time Poland instigated a war with Russia over the right to produce Vodka, this was the first time Poland claimed Vodka as their own.

After the claim Russia appointed historian and Soviet patriot William Pokhlebkin to investigate the topic, he claimed that Vodka was first made in Moscow in the year 1440, this date was later disputed by many academics, the court ruled in Russia’s favor and Poland lost the first vodka war against Russia. Poland at that time was being ruled the Russian Communist party.

There is no evidence to support that the year 1440 was the first-time vodka was produced. As a matter of fact, the word Vodka does not appear in Russian text until the year 1750.

Nina Kruglikova, Russian linguist, Oxford University explains that the origin of the word Vodka cannot be traced to Russia as even the first dictionaries in Russia did not include the word VODKA. She also explains that the word VODKA can be traced to the polish word “Wodka” used to refer the alcoholic beverage.

A 1693 scripture from Poland includes the word “Gorzalka” which was the Polish word to describe Vodka at that time. A medicine book named “Falimierz on Herbs” printed in Krakow Poland, in 1543 includes the word “Gorzalka” meaning Vodka, which at that time was being used as a medicine. This is the first real evidence of the word Vodka.

It would take another 100 years or more to find solid evidence to find the origin of Vodka, but till then we know that the word Vodka or as the Polish say Wodka first appeared in writing in Poland before it appeared in Russia.

References:

Youtube (2018). YouTube. Retrieved 30 October, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR_37f6hHTE

Youtube (2018). YouTube. Retrieved 30 October, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2N6A6LyTA