On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The vodka is unaged made using a traditional filtration method developed by P. 21 was created by Smirnov’s son Vladimir after escaping Russia during the October Revolution. Moscow under the trade name PA Smirnov in 1864, pioneered charcoal filtration in the 1870s, and by 1886 had captured two-thirds of the market in Moscow by virtue of the first use of newspaper advertising while suppressing clerical calls for temperance by generously contributing smirnoff red white and berry the clergy.

Russian royalty reportedly regarded Smirnov as a favorite. When the Tsar nationalized the Russian vodka industry in 1904, Vladimir Smirnov was forced to sell his factory and the brand. During the October Revolution of 1917, the Smirnov family fled the country. In the 1930s, Vladimir met Rudolph Kunett, a Russian who had emigrated in the 1920s to New York, and had succeeded in business. The Kunett family had been a supplier of grain to Smirnov in Moscow before the Revolution. In 1933, Vladimir sold Kunett the rights to Smirnoff vodka production and sales in North America.

Reynolds Tobacco Company acquired Heublein Inc. RJR Nabisco sold the division to Grand Metropolitan in 1987. Russia, claiming to be “The Only Real Smirnov. After a number of lawsuits, Smirnoff successfully reclaimed its trademark, while in 2006 Diageo concluded a joint venture deal with the Smirnov company.