Each society has its own traditions, including those based on the habits and examples of state leaders, especially those who are charismatic and have been in power for a long time. And in the USSR, from 1922 (when Stalin became General Secretary) to 1982 (Brezhnev's death), out of 60 years 52, actively smoking people were in power.
WHY LENIN QUITS SMOKING
The leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), as evidenced by some memoirs, at one time smoked. It was, according to the authors, around 1887. It is believed that he quickly started smoking and quit quickly, and then even talked about the dangers of smoking. Fyodor Solodov, a cadet of the first Kremlin machine-gun courses, recalled the legendary subbotnik on May 1, 1920, the very one on which Ilyich was carrying a log:
Once during the rest, everyone sat down on a log. Vladimir Ilyich also sat down with us. We lit a cigarette. Ilyich looked at us and said: “Well, what good do you find in this smoke? After all, tobacco is poison. It destroys your health. " And we, in turn, asked him: "Have you, Vladimir Ilyich, ever smoked?" - “Yes, in my youth I somehow lit a cigarette, but I quit and didn’t do it anymore.”
STALIN: FROM PIPE TO CIGARS
But Lenin's successor as head of the Communist Party and the Soviet state, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, smoked for almost fifty years and was not at all shy about it. In Soviet films and most literary works, as a rule, only one type of smoking Stalin appears - with a pipe, and, moreover, always filled with Herzegovina Flor tobacco. According to many authors, the "leader of the peoples" either shook tobacco out of cigarettes into a pipe, or simply broke them, pouring the contents into the pipe.
In fact, the secretary general smoked not only a pipe filled with tobacco from cigarettes, but also just tobacco from packs, cigarettes - both ours and Bulgarian, as well as Havana cigars.
With regard to tobacco, the favorites of the "leader of the peoples" were American varieties, for example Edgewood Sliced. In 1936, the leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Georgiy Dimitrov, brought a package of this tobacco as a gift to the leader from America. He was delighted with the gift, but lamented that "he does not know how long the doctors will allow him to smoke his pipe."
Valentin Berezhkov, a well-known Soviet diplomat and one of Stalin's translators, recalled that the "leader of the peoples" no longer smoked a pipe during the Tehran conference in 1943:
“He was in a marshal's uniform, but, as always, sloppy: in crumpled trousers and in his invariable Caucasian soft boots. He smoked not a pipe (the doctors forbade him), but cigarettes "Herzegovina Flor".
In old age, doctors really did not recommend Stalin to smoke, but he did not always listen to these recommendations. In the family archive of A. N. Shefov, one of the authors of the book "Stalin's Blizhnyaya Dacha", there is a fragment of a recording of his conversation with the commandant of the dacha in Volynsk I. M. Orlov. He talked about the window of the Small Dining Room, which overlooked the southern veranda of the dacha:
“This window at the bottom, in the right side, had a window. In recent years, Stalin, according to a long-standing habit, opened it, took cigarettes from the table and smoked, and shook the ashes out the window, and not into the ashtray, since at that time the doctors had already forbidden him to smoke. The officers on duty constantly found tobacco ash in the window: the fact is that an insect screen was attached behind the window. The security officers reported their findings to Stalin, showing that the ashes remained on the windowsill. "I'm sorry," he answered, "I'll be more careful next time."
The historical guide "Stalin's Blizhnyaya Dacha" tells about what was the arsenal of Stalin-smoker, which was in the Small dining room:
Most often it was located at the left corner of the table closest to the entrance door. At the place where the Boss was sitting, they laid out sharply sharpened colored pencils (usually 14 pieces) and notepads. There are also boxes of Soviet Herzegovina Flor cigarettes and Bulgarian Lux cigarettes, Havana cigars, chimney sweeps, matches.
Havana cigars, according to some authors, Stalin broke into three parts, crumbled with his fingers and stuffed a pipe with tobacco. Ashtrays, pipes, cigarettes, cigars and packs of tobacco were in all rooms, even on the second floor of the dacha, where Stalin rarely went up. The smoker's accessories were present even on the playground, not to mention the billiard room and the sauna. And Stalin quit smoking three and a half months before his death, which, however, did not work for him ...
THE LAST SMOKING GENERAL WAS BREZHNEV
Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, who replaced Stalin as the leader of the country and the Communist Party, did not show any special "merits" in relation to smoking. I didn’t smoke myself, but I turned a blind eye to how others did it. Sometimes, as Alexei Alekseevich Salnikov, who worked in his security, recalled, he drove smokers, but without fanaticism. But the "first marshal" Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov was a real hater of smoking. They say that as a child, he argued "who will smoke the most," and lost consciousness. Voroshilov's guard Viktor Kuzovlev recalled:
Voroshilov was not capricious, he never threw out "numbers" (like to hide from the bodyguard unnoticed). The only thing - I could not stand smokers. I remember once during a ski trip we met a guy with a cigarette in his mouth (a resident of a nearby village). Voroshilov stopped him, took a cigarette out of his mouth and threw it into the snow, shaming him: "How can you, young man, go skiing and smoke ..."
A fanatical hater of smoking was the "gray eminence" of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Andreevich Suslov. Even an inveterate smoker, General Secretary of the Central Committee Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, was afraid of him. When Suslov was supposed to enter his office, according to the recollections of the guards, he immediately put out a cigarette and ordered to ventilate the room: "Misha does not like being smoked!" Even while watching hockey matches, when the "smoke" during the break was something like a ritual for the members of the Politburo, headed by the secretary general, in the presence of Suslov, even the ashtrays were removed.
The Secretary General's son-in-law, Yuri Mikhailovich Churbanov, back in the late nineties, told me about what and how Brezhnev smoked:
Leonid Ilyich smoked for a long time, probably since the war. In those years when I met him, he smoked two types of cigarettes: "Novost" and "Krasnopresnenskie", more, of course, "Novost". And when doctors forbade him to smoke, he fired cigarettes from guards, associates, and relatives. Once I was with him at Luzhniki on hockey, and during a break he asked me: "Yura, do you have any cigarettes?" I say: "Yes, Leonid Ilyich." He: "Let me light a cigarette." I, of course, took out a pack (I smoked "Kent" at that time), I give it to him. He took a cigarette, I flicked a lighter, gave him a light. He took a drag and said: "You Yura, don't smoke those cigarettes ..." Maybe he didn't like the taste, maybe they were too light for him. Since then I have carried my cigarettes in one pocket, and Stolichny for my father-in-law in the other. He shot them with pleasure ... "
Viktor Sukhodrev, who was Brezhnev's personal translator for many years, said that when doctors began to prohibit him from smoking, he first decided to limit the daily norm. And then in one of the technical divisions of the KGB they made a beautiful dark green cigarette case with a timer and a lock. After he took a cigarette, the next cigarette case "allowed" him only after 45 minutes.
And when Brezhnev nevertheless gave up smoking, he asked the guards who were constantly next to him to "smoke him." Vladimir Medvedev, deputy chief of the general's personal security, recalled:
Even when he was conducting the Politburo, he asked:
Sit next to me, smoke.
Of course, not all members of the Politburo - the old people - liked it, there were also non-smokers, but no one dared to object ...
But at some army meetings or party economic assets, the picture looked amazing. The local party bosses are sitting, everything is decorous and noble, and we, the guards, in the presence of the general, right behind him, smoke, tar ....
Brezhnev did not change his habits even during meetings with foreign leaders. Viktor Sukhodrev wrote in his memoirs that the secretary general during the negotiations suddenly began to worry, looked at the non-smoking Minister of Foreign Affairs Gromyko and Aleksandrov's assistant -Agentov, sitting next to them, and then turned to Sukhodrev:
Vitya, but you smoke! Light a cigarette, please!
I lit a cigarette, but naturally I tried to blow the smoke away from him. Then Brezhnev again asked:
Well, not the same! Smoke on me! ..
The picture was surreal: an interpreter sits at the head of the table during negotiations, brazenly lights a cigarette, and even blows smoke in the face of the leader of his country.
And what about after Brezhnev? Andropov did not smoke, Chernenko, in the year when he headed the party and was the first person in the state, he was seriously ill and he was not up to it. Gorbachev was not a smoker either, nor was the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin. And Vladimir Putin even became famous for having passed a modern medical test, which showed that he does not smoke. And, by the way, he raised the issue of smokers in the government. One day he asked which member of his government smokes, and said the following phrase:
How will you fight? We must fight by personal example! What are you laughing at? You also smoke, you also need to quit. Please.
How not to recall the classic anecdote about the meeting of the prime ministers of Russia and Japan:
The Japanese prime minister asks Putin:
What about the Kuriles?
Putin, without hesitation for a second, replied:
You know, I haven’t smoked, and I don’t advise you either. You will be healthier ...
In preparing the material, the memoirs of the 9th KGB Directorate, Yuri Churbanov, and the book by Viktor Sukhodrev “My tongue is my friend. From Khrushchev to Gorbachev ", Fyodor Solodov's story" At the subbotnik "from the book" To Children about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ", memoirs of Svetlana Alliluyeva" Twenty Letters to a Friend ", the book by Sergei Devyatov, Alexander Shefov, Yury Yuryev" Stalin's Near Dacha ", magazine materials "Antiques" (№№ 1 - 2 for 2003)
Let's discuss!
Cigarettes "Herzegovina Flor" among many tobacco brands have become a symbol of an entire era.
They were smoked by a huge country for decades.
Smokers remember them as high-quality and fragrant cigarettes with a long history.
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Herzegovina Flor cigarettes and their production
“” Is considered a Soviet mark, but this statement is not entirely true. Their release began at the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century, and continued safely during and after the revolution and the Civil War. The production was carried out by the factory “S. Gabaya ”, named after its founder.
Samuel Gabay was an enterprising and shrewd entrepreneur. He arrived in Moscow from Kharkov, and the family came from the Crimean Tatars.
He wished to offer customers unique tobacco products, to add zest to the products. As a result, the factory “S. Gabai ”tobacco was delivered from Indonesia, from the island. Later, the company received the same name. 
The main difference from similar products is that the basis of their tobacco blend is the special Herzegovina Flor tobacco.
Opinions differ about its name and origin:
- Tobacco was grown in the province of Herzegovina, located in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. The second word in the name - “flor” - denotes tobacco obtained as a result of long-term processing. Tobacco leaves strip the stem and all the veins, called in the language of professionals "root and filament". The remaining soft part of the leaves is cut into thin strips. The technology is labor intensive. Flor is the most expensive tobacco grown in Herzegovina. Connoisseurs claim that its aroma is exceptional, and the smoke is distinguished by its tenderness. The cost of "Herzegovina Flor" tobacco can be 4 times higher than the price of an ordinary variety. Most often used for stuffing cigarettes. For smoking in a pipe, coarsely chopped tobacco is more suitable.
- The variety was bred by an unknown Crimean breeder for personal use. The aim was to combine the aroma and sweetness of oriental tobaccos with the high yielding of American varieties. The resulting variety had an important feature: during its processing, artificial acceleration of fermentation is unacceptable. The manifestation of all the qualities of tobacco begins only after 6 months of aging.
S. Gabay did an excellent job with the brand name. It is named after the region from which the particular tobacco was exported. Residents of the town of Lubine and its environs (southern Herzegovina) have been engaged in tobacco growing since the 17th century.
For a long time, "Herzegovina Flor" was produced only by the Moscow tobacco factory "Java". Then part of the production was gradually transferred to the capacities of other factories in the USSR. In the 1970s, supplies were made to the markets of the socialist countries.
In the 1980s, the production of Herzegovina Flor filter cigarettes began. The cigarette product was packaged in hard packs. But the new tobacco product did not appeal to consumers, and cigarettes were not mass-produced.
Tobacco products under the Herzegovina Flor brand are produced at the Morshansk Tobacco Factory. They are of decent quality, but the recipe has little in common with the original sample. The composition does not contain Balkan tobacco. According to connoisseurs, the aroma is pleasant, but completely different.
Smokers test
On the small variety of tobacco brands
"Herzegovina Flor", like many cigarettes in the USSR, cannot offer smokers fundamentally new tastes. Tobacco products have a traditional natural tobacco flavor.
Types of "Herzegovina Flor" do not differ in variety. One unit of tobacco product contains 12 mg of tar and 0.9 mg of nicotine.
The designs of modern cigarette packs surprise with their colorfulness and original elements. And most of the cigarette products of the last century were packed in unpretentious packages. At first, "Herzegovina Flor" fit into the box without unnecessary details.
The edges and sides were painted in a light green color. Above is glued white paper with inscriptions in golden brown color. 
Then the type of pack was replaced with a more interesting version. The flat rectangular packaging turned black, this color contrasted well with the juicy light green edges. The surface of the pack looks glossy, and the golden letters in the name look a little bold.
There are 2 interesting details in the design:
- A "ribbon" of repeating letters I, B and A runs along the sides;
- In the center of the pack, as if there is an imprint with a wax seal with the word Java.
The lid opens upwards like a cigar box. Under it, the smoker is greeted by foil, and then, similar to parchment, paper. The cigarettes look decent. You can see the neatly cut tobacco through the transparent paper. The brand name is located near the junction of the mouthpiece and the tobacco part.
The design of a pack of Herzegovina Flor cigarettes is similar to that of a cigarette, the colors are the same. The packaging format is standard, like many modern cigarette products. There is no information on the content of harmful substances on the pack.
The “Morshansk Factory” issued a view, as indicated by the “wriggling” inscription in the center of the package. The pack is painted in pale yellow, and the name of the brand and manufacturer is in brown-burgundy color.
In the lower right corner there is a bright red anniversary ribbon “115 years of the tobacco factory”. On the cigarette along the mouthpiece, closer to the tobacco part, there is an inscription “Elite”, made in elegant italics.
Recently, the image of Comrade Stalin is popular and gaining momentum. It seems that this firm and fair hand is missing. The time where the most terrible enemy was defeated and became an industrial power of world significance.
And what about without the image of Stalin with a pipe. Maybe he smoked something special? Now we will talk about this and look into the snuff-box of the leader of all times and peoples.
The most famous pipe smoker is undoubtedly Joseph Vissarionovich. His image in the eyes of any people will certainly evoke associations with a tobacco pipe.
The answer is simple and obvious, at least to those who at least once took an interest in the life and fate of Joseph Vissarionovich - this is "Herzegovina Flor". It should be noted that these cigarettes were made specially for the leader on a special order. An interesting fact is that Stalin usually filled his pipe with tobacco from cigarettes, and threw out the "sleeve".
This brand of cigarettes was produced in the pre-revolutionary years and was considered elite, the smell of smoking which caused admiration and a sense of the prestige of the smoker among others.
With regard to tobacco, the favorites of the "leader of the peoples" were American varieties, for example Edgewood Sliced. In 1936, the leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Georgiy Dimitrov, brought a package of this tobacco as a gift to the leader from America. He was delighted with the gift, but lamented that "he does not know how long the doctors will allow him to smoke his pipe."
With the light hand of Soviet filmmakers, a picture took root in the mass consciousness: JV Stalin opens a pack of Herzegovina Flor cigarettes, pulls out one, crumples a sleeve, and fills his pipe with spilled tobacco. He may have done this a couple of times, but most likely infrequently. The fact is that a pipe needs special tobacco, coarsely cut, otherwise it will either burn very quickly or it will soon go out. The Soviet leader had the opportunity to smoke any kind of tobacco (for example, "Prince Albert" or "Edgeworth"), and he did not need to invent something. And he smoked cigarettes, and so, in the most usual way, the chronicle brought these historical moments to his contemporaries. It should be noted that there were almost no special shops producing food for the Kremlin at that time; it is another matter that the purchases were made by a special department of government security. But the fact that "Herzegovina Flor" were Joseph Stalin's favorite cigarettes is really true.
According to some reports, the leader was fond of tobacco for five decades, of which he was not particularly ashamed or embarrassed. The collection of Stalin's pipes is also striking, of which he had very, very many during his life. From brands of domestic manufacturers to the English Dunhill. Often, the collection of Stalin's pipes can be seen at special exhibitions dedicated to his life and the period of his reign. Some of the pipes in the collection have their own unique biography and history. Despite the widespread misconception, it was not only a pipe that Stalin smoked. He could not disdain domestic cigarettes, he also preferred Bulgarian stamps. One of the preferred varieties was the American Edgewood Sliced.
There is a rumor that once Stalin gathered in his office all the important representatives of the match factories. With them, he demonstratively begins to take a box of matches out of his desk drawer, one at a time, while trying to light his pipe. One goes out, the other, and the boxes, one by one, are taken by the leader. And so on until the seventh attempt, until a match from the next box flared up with a bright light.
At the end of the “presentation”, the representatives were asked one question - ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS? After those present had no questions, and the essence of the demonstration was absorbed by everyone, Stalin silently dismissed all the representatives. Subsequently, Soviet matches became almost the most reliable in the world.
Smoking is definitely harmful. This bad habit interferes with its adherent and the people around him. However, many people have an uncontrollable craving for tobacco smoke that can be difficult to get rid of. Some make attempts to quit smoking, and in the future, based on the experience gained, they claim, like Mark Twain, that it is not difficult at all, and they themselves have done it many times.
The tobacco industry is an integral part of the food industry and the agro-industrial complex of many countries. Manufacturers usually value brands that have been known to the consumer for many decades. One of them, "Herzegovina Flor", was born in Tsarist Russia, survived revolutions, two world wars, the era of Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, three more general secretaries, the collapse of the USSR and exists to this day. Its history is closely related to the chronicle of the entire country.
Gabai Factory
This story could serve as an illustration of a theory about the enormous opportunities that capitalist free enterprise offers. After the wars with Turkey, Russia was enriched by a new ethnos, namely the Karaite people, whose representatives were traditionally involved in the sale of tobacco. Crimean Samuil Gabai, having secured financial support from the Kharkov merchant Abraham Capon, created an enterprise in Moscow in the second half of the 19th century. This energetic man did not stop at the usual mediation, and invested profits in the development of his brainchild. Cigarettes at that time in Russia were just becoming fashionable, and in 1883 Gabai began their production. Successful competition required some kind of commercial "trick", and the owner of the "S. Gabai Tobacco Factory Partnership" found it. He began to import fragrant raw materials from the exotic Indonesian island of Java. The products really did have a delicate aroma, and it went well. By the beginning of the new century, Samuil Gabay already owned two production buildings, he changed his trade mark, naming it after his most popular cigarettes "Java". It seemed that commercial success had been achieved, and one could rest on our laurels.
But the capitalist system requires constant development, and at the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century, a new product appeared in the assortment of Java - Herzegovina Flor cigarettes.
Scented tobacco
As in the case with Java, Samuel Gabay made the right marketing move. He named the new brand of cigarettes after the locality of the tobacco with which he stuffed his products. But in this case, the brand corresponded not only to the geographical location of the raw material plantations. In the Balkans, namely in Herzegovina, a special aromatic variety with a rich bouquet grew (if one can speak of such in relation to the suffocating smoke). In fact, the trade mark corresponded to the botanical name of the plant Herzegovina Flor, and today the seeds of this tobacco are presented on the profile market. Everyone can buy them and try to grow such a self-garden in their summer cottage. However, one should take into account the peculiarities of the climate and soil, otherwise everything would be very simple. In Russia, there are suitable conditions only in the Krasnodar Territory, where Virginia varieties are willingly growing.
New times
In 1917, events took place after which marketing research for a long time lost all meaning. However, the harsh war communism was eventually replaced by some relaxation in the form of the New Economic Policy.
In the twenties, there was even a need for advertising, and the great proletarian poet, and concurrently the author of sonorous slogans, Vladimir Mayakovsky, even dedicated a couple of his ingenious words to the Herzegovina Flor cigarettes, rhyming with the TM name with the motto “give odds”. In the sense that everyone else is far from them. It is possible that he himself smoked this brand.
About cigarettes in general
During the hard years, which the history of our country of the XX century is so rich in, tobacco products for the most part became in short supply. A relative exception was makhorka, which was part of the soldier's ration. Cigarettes "Belomorkanal" were considered a class lower than "Troika" or "Herzegovina Flor", tobacco was simpler, and the pack was much more modest, but even this simple product of the Soviet food industry during the war was not available to everyone. The quality of cigarettes produced in accordance with GOST at many factories of the USSR also differed. For example, the Leningrad "Belomor" was considered the best in the country, the famous "Salve" with a cotton filter in the mouthpiece (also an old-fashioned brand) were produced in Odessa. In the first post-war years, some types of tobacco products were considered an elite product, they were even sold in Torgsiny.
After the Victory, equipment for the production of oval cigarettes without a filter was removed from Germany for reparations, some of which are still produced today (Polet, Nord, Sever, Priboy, Prima, Vatra in Ukraine, Priluki " and etc.). They are supposed to be smoked through the mouthpiece, but you can do that, only you often have to spit out tobacco crumbs. But the majority of high-ranking party workers preferred, in imitation of the leader, Herzegovina Flor cigarettes. Cigarettes en masse took over the Soviet tobacco market later, when they were supplied with a filter.
Such a famous (mainly thanks to films about Stalin) brand of cigarettes could not just sink into oblivion. Modern products manufactured at the Morshansk Tobacco Factory are characterized by very good quality, although in terms of recipes they have little in common with the prototype. Balkan tobacco is not supplied for them, other varieties are used that are pleasant for smokers, but the aroma, according to experts, is not the same. Under this brand, ordinary filter cigarettes were also produced, but this innovation somehow did not take root.
WHY LENIN QUITS SMOKING
The leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), as evidenced by some memoirs, at one time smoked. It was, according to the authors, around 1887. It is believed that he quickly started smoking and quit quickly, and then even talked about the dangers of smoking. Fyodor Solodov, a cadet of the first Kremlin machine-gun courses, recalled the legendary subbotnik on May 1, 1920, the very one on which Ilyich was carrying a log:
Once during the rest, everyone sat down on a log. Vladimir Ilyich also sat down with us. We lit a cigarette. Ilyich looked at us and said: “Well, what good do you find in this smoke? After all, tobacco is poison. It destroys your health. " And we, in turn, asked him: "Have you, Vladimir Ilyich, ever smoked?" - “Yes, in my youth I somehow lit a cigarette, but I quit and didn’t do it anymore.”
Sources:
“Stalin made the greatest impression on us. He possessed a deep, non-panic, logical wisdom. He was an invincible master of finding ways out of the most hopeless situation in difficult moments ... He was an unusually complex person. "
W. Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (English Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; November 30, 1874 - January 24, 1965) - British statesman and politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1940-1945 and 1951-1955, military man, journalist, writer , laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1953).
Churchill did not share the general opinion that Stalin made a mistake and "missed" Hitler's attack. The meetings and correspondence with Stalin more and more convinced Churchill that Stalin somehow foresaw the future. Stalin's personality for Churchill = "Enemy No. 1", but mysterious and attractive.
On the instructions of Prime Minister Churchill, British intelligence established that Stalin (Dzhugashvili) graduated from a theological seminary in his youth, but after a trip to Iran and meeting with some Syrians there, he left the church and took up revolutionary activities. More on this topic, British intelligence did not manage to learn anything new, except for the well-known facts of Stalin's biography.
Churchill, firmly resolved to "unravel" the main enemy of his life, decided to rely on his intuition.
Photos of Stalin were delivered to him. Dozens of photographs.
Spreading them out in front of him, Winston began to scrutinize the details. What do they have in common?
Churchill took out a cigar, but his hand hovered over the photographs.
Of course - a smoking pipe!
Churchill sent the Generalissimo a collection of pipes. Will Stalin throw out his "old lady"?
Stalin still did not part with his old pipe, often without even lighting it.
This convinced Churchill even more of the sacredness of the Stalin pipe, and the scouts received a new assignment, with which they coped very successfully this time.
Historically, Tsar Peter I brought pipe smoking to Russia. Like Stalin, Peter did not part with his pipe, but since when?
During the first unsuccessful military campaigns, the Russian tsar did not yet have a pipe. But then she appeared and brilliant victories began!
Stalin has a pipe of Tsar Peter I?
Churchill decides to deprive his enemy of the astral amulet at any cost. But how to do that?
Steal? It's impossible.
Change.
Experts are studying hundreds of photographs in which a pipe appears in Stalin's hands or on his desk. Finally, an exact duplicate is made.
The pipe should have been smoked, and with the same tobacco that Stalin preferred.
By that time, everyone knew Stalin's manner of breaking Herzegovina Flor cigarettes and stuffing a pipe with this tobacco.
Elite cigarettes "Herzegovina Flor" were produced exclusively at a tobacco factory in the city of Morshansk, Tambov region, and were not available for sale, since the state security officers vigilantly monitored the whole process, protecting the leader. In addition, the Morshansk tobacco factory performed other tasks: in addition to several types of cigarettes, the factory replenished the strategic supply of makhorka, which in the Soviet Union could provide an army of 5 million for 7 years of war.
Despite these incredible difficulties, several packs of Herzegovina Flor cigarettes were nevertheless delivered to Churchill.
Winston did not part with his cigar, but he smoked without inhaling. Maybe that's why he lived his 90 years almost without being ill?
He lit a cigarette, appreciated the pleasant smell.
The pipe must be stoned. Anyone who owns this topic knows that smoking a pipe is not an easy task. In the villages, the smoking of a new pipe was entrusted only to an old smoker who was well versed in the secret methods of this procedure ...
To smoke a pipe for Stalin was entrusted to the oldest laboratory of the Admiralty. There was a "sea wolf", an old pipe smoker. It was he who fulfilled the strange assignment.
The substitution task was made more difficult by rumors that Stalin had quit smoking. Nobody could say for sure. The leader still carried his pipe with him, sometimes he took it out, sucked it without lighting it in the presence of others, but it is not known whether he smoked as before, being in solitude.
Churchill's request to purchase Stalin's pipe was passed on to Lavrentiy Beria. Not only did Beria have his own far-reaching plans, he sympathized with Churchill and agreed to fulfill the request of the British Prime Minister.
On March 1, 1953, Beria changed his pipe.
On March 2, Stalin suffered a stroke.
Stalin died on March 5.
After the arrest, among the charges brought against Beria, there was one that caused bewilderment among many - an "English spy"!
Probably, Beria's connection with the British prime minister was somehow revealed.
Perhaps the Stalinist pipe played a fatal role in the fate of Beria?
