How A Poor Russian Refugee Created Smirnoff
The Smirnoff origin story is the most improbable rise-and-fall-and-rise tale in the history of spirits — because the man behind the world’s most recognizable vodka brand was born a literal serf, escaped revolution with nothing, and watched his family’s empire get seized, destroyed, and then secretly rebuilt on the other side of the world. Pyotr Smirnov started with no money, no freedom, and no legal right to own property, yet by the time of his death he was one of Russia’s richest men, with a fortune equivalent to billions of dollars today. And then the revolution came and took everything. [See More…]
