In 1917, a small band of exiled Russian citizens changed the face of their nation and the course of world history. These were the young, proud men of the famous Red Army. They were workers, students, soldiers, bonded with a common goal. Led by only a few, they rose up against the oppression of a Czarist Russian government, fighting in horrific conditions. They were countrymen armed with only two weapons. The first was their undying commitment. The second was vodka.

From the Russian word for “water,” vodka became the lifeblood of the Red Army. Passed out among the troops before battles, vodka gave these young men the courage to fight and was an anesthetic for their pain. It bonded them as brothers-in-arms in times of victory.

As Joseph Stalin rose through the ranks of the Russian Military, he began to twist the principals on which the Red Army was founded into a vicious hate machine. Fear replaced freedom. A republic became a monarchy. But Stalin knew the only way to control a country was to control its army. And to control an army, it had to be kept happy.

According to legend, Stalin ordered the creation of a new Russian royal vodka, but not just any vodka. Stalin demanded a quality of vodka that was unprecedented at the time. Standard vodkas left soldiers reeling from impurities, but this vodka was exceptionally filtered and supremely smooth. Made from only the finest grains under strict supervision, this ultra-premium vodka was produced in small batches and simply labeled “Red Army.”

Today, the cold war is over and the Red Army is disbanded. As the walls of communism came down and waves of freedom swept over the Motherland, the recipe for this secret vodka was re-discovered. Recently, a recreation of this formula has been developed and is being imported by Le Vecke Corporation for High Point Group, Inc. in San Diego, California for distribution in the United States.

A vodka to commemorate the courage of men who stood up in the face of oppression.