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Except for insignificant amounts of flavorings, vodka consists of water and alcohol ( ethanol). Vodka usually has an alcohol content ranging from 35% to 60% by volume. The classic Russian vodka is 40% (80 degrees proof), the number being attributed to the famous Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev.
The origins of vodka (and of its name) cannot be traced definitively, but it is believed to have originated in either Poland or Russia. Surprisingly, until recent times there were no serious historical research on vodka as a product. Nearly all research on vodka was in fact research of drinking and selling vodka, rather than of manufacturing vodka. Paradoxically, the weakening of the Soviet Union somewhat changed this situation (but the conclusive word is yet to be said). The second half of the 1970s witnessed two massive attacks on the priority and rights of the Soviet Union to market liquors named "vodka". The first assault was along the lines that the Russian Revolution "discontinued" Russia's trademark for vodka, which was "naturally" transferred to emigrated manufacturers of vodka, Smirnoff in particular, because of prohibition by Soviets, so that officially the Soviet Union started manufacturing vodka in 1923. This was refuted fairly easily. The second assault, by Poland, was more serious, and the Soviet Union undertook the historical research to substantiate Russia's priority, which was completed by 1979, and in 1982Events January January 6 William Bonin is convicted of being the "freeway killer". January 8 AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara du the international arbitrage considered it convincing enough to grant the USSR the priority in vodka as Russian original alcoholic beverageAlcoholic beverages are drinks containing ethanol, popularly called alcohol''. Alcoholic beverages have been widely used since the remote antiquity by many civilizations around the world, as a component of the standard diet, for hygienic reasons, for thei and recognised the Soviet trademark motto "Only vodka from Russia is genuine Russian vodka".
The author of the research published his findings under the alias V.V.Pokhlebkin in the book A History of VodkaA History of Vodka is a book by V. Pokhlebkin. Around 1977, Poland challenged the Soviet Union for the trademark of vodka. The author of the book in question undertook the historical research to substantiate Russia's priority, which was completed by 1979, (see references below). (He is also known as an author of several culinary books.) Despite the clear bias of the exposition in the book towards the goal (to prove the Russian priority), it is a serious, substantiated research and reveals quite a few facts, as well as debunks a number of myths, on the origins of vodka, both as product and as name.
Despite the judgement described above, Polish historians stand that the first written record of vodka occurred in Poland in 1405 in SandomierzSandomierz is a town in south-eastern Poland with 27,000 inhabitants (1995). Situated in the Swietokrzyskie Voivodship (since 1999), previously in Tarnobrzeg Voivodship (1975-1998). Old town in Sandomierz is one of most well known among Polish cities. Court Registry (thus the Polish claim to vodka). In Russian language, the first written usage of the word vodka in an official document in its modern meaning is dated by the decree of Catherine I of Russia of June 8, 1751 that regulated the ownership of vodka distilleries. At the same time, in the Novgorod chronicle in records dated by 1533 the term "vodka" is used in the context leading to the conclusion that it meant herbal alcoholic tinctures. Additionally, in a number of pharmaceutical lists the expressions "vodka of bread wine", "vodka in half of bread wine" was used. Recalling that alcohol was long known as a basis for medicines, the above leads to a reasonable suggestion that the term vodka is a noun derived from the verb "vodit'", "razvodit'", translated as "to dilute with water". Hence "vodka of bread wine" is simply a water dilution of a distilled spirit. While the word could be found in manuscripts and in a kind of old Russian comics called lubok (pictures with text explaining the plot), it entered the Russian normative language (judging by lexicons) around the middle of 19th century.