Joint-Stock Company Moscow Distillery Crystal (), formerly known as Moscow State Wine Warehouse No. 1, is a

distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, known for producing traditional Russian

vodka Vodka ( ; is a clear distilled beverage, distilled alcoholic beverage. Its varieties originated in Poland and Russia. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impurities and flavourings. Traditionally, it is ...

. Founded in 1901 as a state-sanctioned distillery, Kristall is the largest

liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...

and vodka enterprise in Russia, and is best known internationally as the birthplace of the

Stolichnaya Stolichnaya () is a vodka made of wheat and rye grain. It originated in the Soviet Union in 1938. There are two versions of the vodka: the version found outside Russia is made in Latvia, while the version found inside Russia is made there. With ...

vodka brand.

History

In 1896, by

decree A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...

of the Minister of Finance of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, Sergei Yulevich Vitte, a

state monopoly In economics, a government monopoly or public monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is a monopoly ...

on the production and sale of

alcoholic beverages Drinks containing alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and spirits—with alcohol content typically between 3% and 50%. Drinks with less than 0.5% are sometimes considered non-alcoholic. Many societies have a di ...

was introduced. On June 24, 1901, Moscow State Wine Warehouse No. 1 was founded as a state-sanctioned

and

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

, located on the banks of the

Yauza River The Yauza () is a river in Moscow and Mytishchi, Russia, a left and largest tributary of the Moskva (river), Moskva in the Russian capital. It originates in the Losiny Ostrov National Park northeast of Moscow, flows through Mytishchi, enters Mosc ...

in the east of the city. The distillery employed 1,500 people and was planned to produce 600,000 state vodka buckets per year, however, only a week after opening plans were made to expand production due to unexpectedly high demand, and instead produced 2,100,000 (approximately 2.6 million decalitres) in its first year of operation. At the beginning, production was divided among three quality divisions, from lowest to highest quality: "simple", "improved", and " boyarskaya". From October 31, 1914, due to Russia's participation in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the distillery's production was cut down and was closed to the civilian market because of a

dry law Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic be ...

, while production continued for the military, foreign market, and medical applications. A

military hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned or operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a m ...

was situated for some time in the unused areas of the distillery building. Due to the collapse of the Russian Empire and the rise of the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

to power, it was not until 1923 that pre-war production was restored at the distillery as a state-owned enterprise of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. By January 1, 1924, the distillery had produced 844,720 litres of vodka. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, in addition to vodka production, the distillery also produced "

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a Fuse (explosives), fuse (typically a glass bottle filled wit ...

" weapons for the Soviet war effort. The distillery was severely damaged by a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

bomb on July 22, 1941, igniting

flammable A combustible material is a material that can burn (i.e., sustain a flame) in air under certain conditions. A material is flammable if it ignites easily at ambient temperatures. In other words, a combustible material ignites with some effort ...

products in the building, but despite the heavy damage production continued. For contributions during the war, the distillery was awarded the Banner of the State Defense Committee. In January 1987, the distillery received its current name, Moscow Distillery Crystal. In 1993, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the distillery became a private

joint-stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareho ...

and the Moscow Distillery Kristall name

trade mark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from oth ...

were registered. In 2002 the Kristall plant signed an agreement with the Estonian Onistar plant for the production of beverages under its own brands. The plant produced vodka «Embassy», «Gzhelka", «Golden Ring» and «Old Moscow». In the 2010s vodka was bottled at the plant for Kristall-Lefortovo (Old Moscow and Festive brands) and the Eastern European Distribution Company VEDK (brands «Putinka», «Dvoynaya», 30.4%). The most famous brands of the plant are vodka «Putinka», «CRISTALL Golden Ring», «Moskovskaya Kristall», «Stary Arbat», «Golden Ring» and others. In 2013 the plant stopped production due to the transfer of the enterprise to the Korystovo branch. The production lines were stopped on May 15. Before that the Korystovo branch was launched at full capacity — according to 2013 it produced 7 million decaliters (dal) of vodka per year. In connection with the move, the plant stopped producing products of the companies Kristall-Lefortovo («Old Moscow» and «Prazdnichnaya») and Kazenka («Kazenka» vodka). In 2014 the territory of the plant was planned to be transformed into an urban quarter, with its own infrastructure, offices, workshops, lofts, sports and educational areas. In 2015 the redevelopment project was frozen due to lack of funding.

Financial performance

Directors

On May 26, 2000 by decision of the Board of Directors, CEO Yuri Ermilov was dismissed. He was replaced by Alexander Romanov, former vice president of Rosneft. Already in November 2000, his position was transferred to Sergei Lukashuk, who was ousted on April 2, 2001. Alexander Timofeev took over the post of General Director by decision of the Board of Directors of the plant. On August 12, 2002 he was replaced by Alexander Romanov. On August 12, 2005 Igor Kriskovets was appointed CEO. In 2007 his position was transferred to Igor Olegovich Alyoshin. In 2008 Roman Malyshev took over the post, who was replaced by Apoyan Ara Rubikovich on March 31, 2021. He left the position five months later. In 2023 Evgeny Igorevich Zheleznov is the general director of the plant. 86% of the shares of Kristall as of November 2010 belonged to entrepreneur Vasily Anisimov, co-owner of Coalco construction holding and Metalloinvest mining holding. His stake is under the operational management of FSUE Rosspirtprom. About 9% of the company's shares are controlled by individuals.

Operation

The company mainly specialized in bottling vodkas by order of other companies. Thus the most important customer (52.1% of the output) was the Kristall-Lefortovo company («Old Moscow» and «Prazdnichnaya» vodka were produced by its order), and significant volumes of products were also produced for the VEDK company owned by Vasily Anisimov (« Putinka», «Dvoynaya» brands; 30.4%). In addition «Kazenka vodka was bottled by order of the company of the same name. Among the company's own brands are vodka «Chistiy Kristall», «Privet», their output was small. In 2018 the plant received the rights to manage the «Putinka» vodka brand. For a long time the Kristall plant was the leader in terms of vodka production in the Russian Federation, in particular, in 2011 it produced 9.1 million dal of products, and in 2012, due to the beginning of the transfer of production facilities to the Moscow region, it lost first place and reduced production to 7 million dal. The company's turnover is not disclosed, according to expert estimates, revenue in 2006 amounted to 10 billion rubles.

References

External links

Moscow Distillery Cristall
(English; official website) {{Vodkas Drink companies of the Soviet Union Distilleries in Russia Manufacturing companies based in Moscow Food and drink companies based in Moscow Cultural heritage monuments in Moscow