Vodka pioneer Pyotr Smirnov is one the most fascinating salesmen and entrepeneurs the world has ever known. This title presents a chronicle of ambition and innovation that has fascinating parallels to the post-communist Russia.

Born in a Russian village in 1831, Pyotr Smirnov relied on vodka to turn a life of scarcity and anonymity into one of immense wealth and international recognition. Starting from the back rooms and side streets of nineteeth-century Moscow, Smirnov exploited brilliant grassroots marketing strategies to popularize his products and ensconce his brand in the thirsts and imaginations of drinkers around the world. His vodka would be gulped in the taverns of Russia and Europe, be praised with accolades at world fairs, and become a staple on the tables of tsars. But his improbable ascent would be halted by the chaos of the Bolshevik Revolution, and only a bizarre set of coincidences—including an incredible prison escape by one of Smirnov’s sons in 1919—would prevent Smirnov’s legacy from fading into obscurity.

Set against a backdrop of political and ideological currents that would determine the course of global events, The King of Vodka is much more than a biography of a humble serf who rose to create one of the most celebrated business empires the world has ever known. It is a work of sweeping narrative history on an epic scale.

Vodka pioneer Pyotr Smirnov is one the most fascinating salesmen and entrepeneurs the world has ever known, and his life as recreated by Linda Himelstein, set against the Russia of Tolstoy and tsars, is a stirring chronicle of ambition and innovation that has fascinating parallels to the post-communist Russia of today. Plumbing recently unearthed archives and mountains of primary sources, Himelstein has uncovered a rich historical record. In prose that's vivid and assured, she takes the reader beyond the formation of one of the oldest brands in business history and into the personal lives of the Smirnov family and the tumultuous events that lead to the Revolution. Authoritative, illuminating, and deeply engrossing, "The King of Vodka" is a monumental work of history.