Legend has it that Peter the Great once drank the husband of his niece to death. Frederick William, Duke of Courland (1692-1711) married Anna Ioannovna (1693-1740), daughter of Peter’s brother Ivan (1666-1696), on October 31st, 1710, and two months of lavish parties in St. Petersburg and around it followed. By January, it was time for the newlyweds to travel to Courland, the husband’s home country, but before leaving, 18-year-old Frederick William, who had already been drinking for two months straight, decided to have a drinking contest with Tsar Peter himself. The next day, January 10th, Frederick William died en route, having traveled only 26 miles from St. Petersburg. Contemporaries believed alcohol poisoning was the main reason for his death.
Vodka was first distilled in the Moscow Kremlin on October 10th, 1503. Before that, vodka (then called aqua vita, Latin for the ‘water of life’) was bought from Europe and used as a medicine for colds and low blood pressure. In 1503, the first Russian distillery was built and production of Russian vodka began – first in small amounts and solely for the royal family.
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