In 1896, by decree of the Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire, Sergei Yulevich Vitte, a state monopoly on the production and sale of alcoholic beverages was introduced. On June 24, 1901, Moscow State Wine Warehouse No. 1 was founded as a state-sanctioned vodka and wine distillery in Moscow, located on the banks of the Yauza River 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 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, the distillery's production was cut down and was closed to the civilian market because of a dry law, while production continued for the military, foreign market, and medical applications. A military hospital 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 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. By January 1, 1924, the distillery had produced 844,720 litres of vodka. During the Second World War, in addition to vodka production, the distillery also produced "Molotov cocktail" weapons for the Soviet war effort. The distillery was severely damaged by a German bomb on July 22, 1941, igniting flammable 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 1945, Workshop No. 1 was opened as a branch to produce the highest quality beverages for the Soviet political elite, with each bottle that left the workshop featuring a certificate with the list of lastnames and personal signatures of the experts responsible for the product. In 1953, the now-famous vodka brand Stolichnaya was released on to the market, having been introduced at an international trade show in Bern, Switzerland, where it received a gold medal in a blind taste test over the more well known Russian vodka brand Smirnoff. The Soviet Union began to mass-produce bottles of Stolichnaya in the Ukrainian SSR for international export. Stolichnaya is believed to have been created in 1944 at the Moscow distillery by an expert distiller, V.G. Svirida, but never sold or produced in large quantities. 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 and the Moscow Distillery Kristall name trade mark were registered. In 2003, Kristall introduced the new vodka brand Putinka.
