Long Live the King

The King of Vodka: The Story of Pytor Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire - Linda Himelstein

            Pytor Smirnov is someone I admittedly knew nothing about before picking this book up from the library.  Smirnov was born a Russian serf in the 1800's who would eventually buy his freedom and found an alcoholic empire based on his vodka concoctions.  Fortunate enough to live at a time when the vodka/alcoholic business was beginning to boom and Tsarist capitalism was beginning to blossom, Himelstein's biography of the King of Vodka shows the self-made rise of the vodka magnate and his now famous company.

          Himelstein's biography is split into two parts.  The first of these deals with Pytor Smirnov's life and the rise of his company.  At times she effectively uses stories similar to what one can imagine happened in Smirnov's early life as a serf , which is understanding considering that there probably weren't very good records on the daily lives of serfs during Tsarist times. From these humble origins, Smirnov will one day become an award winning vodka, to the point of being served at the Tsar's court.


          The second part details what happened to his family and company after Smirnov's death at the end of the 19th Century.  Coming when it did, this is an obvious turning point, it both marks the company having a change of ownership and the monumental turn Russia unknowingly is about to take in the first decades of the 20th Century.

          When I first read the title, I figured that the "Upheaval of an Empire" would deal with the fall of the Tsars.  The book does deal with that, but only as it really relates to Smirnov and the company he founded.  More than not, I think the "Empire" Himelstein meant was the upheaval to the Pytor Smirnov vodka empire after his death. 

         I had a problem in deciding whether this book is more of a history or a biography.  It is a bit of both, but more than not, it's a biography. The book is enjoyable, though like seems to be the case with most memiors/biographies I read recently, the early part of the story is stressed over the later, more current story.  Himelstein's presentation of life under the Tsar is specifically an interesting read. 

Rating: 3 out of 5