Alcoholic Paternity Test: Are the Mongols the True Fathers of Vodka?
In 1386, Genoese ambassadors came to Moscow and presented the Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy with a curious beverage called “water of life”. This wondrous drink was in fact distilled liquor, but the Grand Duke and his Russian subjects did not know of alcohol distillation at the time. The episode can be viewed as marking the early beginnings of Russia’s most famed distilled alcoholic beverage: vodka.
The story of the Genoese ambassadors is pure fabrication, and despite being often quoted, does not appear in any credible historical source[1]. The consumption of distilled liquors became widespread across Russia towards the end of the 16th century, but how the “water life” was introduced into the country remains a debated subject[2]. Historians have resorted to mental contortions to claim that alcohol distillation came to Russia via trade links with either the Italian peninsula or Northern Europe, despite the absence of any supporting pieces of evidence[3].
Why look obsessively towards Western Europe for the origins of vodka? The Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy probably never drank spirits, but he did have to contend with a population that was familiar with alcohol distillation: the Mongols. Originating from East Asia, the Mongols built an empire that by the 13th century stretched from China to Russia. Their dominion facilitated the exchange of goods and technology between the Eastern and Western parts of the Old World. Many Mongols settled in an area encompassing Southeast Russia where they constituted a political entity colorfully named the “Golden Horde”.
A Chinese cookbook written in 1330 provides evidence that Mongols based in Northern China drank distilled liquors two centuries before the Russians[4]. It should come to no surprise that Mongols of the Golden Horde would import the technology of alcohol distillation from their brethren in China. The earliest written source on distilled liquors with a loose connection to Russia and the Golden Horde can be found in a 15th century panegyric about Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror. Tamerlane fought and won a decisive battle in Southwest Russia against the leader of the Golden Horde, Tokhtamysh. Following this victory, a banquet was held where distilled liquor (“araq”) was served[5]. Tax records provide yet a more decisive piece of evidence in favor of the Mongolian origins of vodka. Ottoman tax registers from the early 16th century attest to the production of distilled alcohol at scale on the northern shores of the Black Sea, the same area of Russia where Mongols’ Golden Horde had settled[6]. The earliest of these tax records dates from around 1520. There are no traces of the production of alcohol distillation in areas bordering Russia’s Western territories at such an early date. And we can find no signs of alcohol distillation in the medieval Genoese settlements around the Black Sea. Searching for vodka’s origins in the West has remained a hopeless quest, while tangible evidence points towards the Mongols.
The domination of Russia by the Mongols has sometimes been described as a “yoke”, but it seems that this yoke also brought a deliciously liberating drink: vodka.
[1] The source of this fake story appears to be William Pokhlyobkin’s History of Vodka (“История водки”). For the English translation see William Pokhlebkin, A History of Vodka (1992, pages 20 and 65). Pokhlyobkin seems to base his story on an older book: Gavril Uspenskiĭ, Opyt povi͡estvovanī͡ia o drevnost͡iakh ruskikh, Volume 1 (1818, page 78). There are no historical records referring to the Genoese introducing the “water of life” (“aqua vitae”) to Russia.
[2] There are two notable mentions of distilled alcohol in late 16th century Russia: Joannes Boch, Psalmorum Davidis parodia heroica (1608, page 736, “eamque potionem quam aquam vitae vocant” in a passage relating to the year 1578) and Giles Fletcher, Of the Russe Common Wealth (1591, pages 44 and 112). There is an intriguing mention in Sigmund Von Herberstein, Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (1551, page 134). Everywhere else in the book Von Herberstein only mentions beer and mead, but this one passage mentions that “aquam vitae” is drunk at the beginning of the meal. Although published in 1551, the book recounts events from the early 16th century.
[3] The two most common theories are either that alcohol distillation came from the Genoese, who had settlements on the shores of the Black Sea, or from the Hanseatic trade routes that linked Russia with Northern Europe. There are no historic records that give credence to either theory. While there are no traces of Genoese trading the “water of life”, there is a brief mention of distilled alcohol in the early 14th century book about trade written by a Florence-based banker: Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, La pratica della mercatura scritta da Francesco Balducci Pegolotti (1766, page 295, “acqua arzente”). In Pegolotti‘s book, distilled alcohol is listed in the section for “spices” (“Spezierie”), and was not considered a beverage.
[4] Paul D. Buell, Eugene N. Anderson, Soup for the Qan (2010, page 499, “Arajhi Liquor”). Archeological findings have confirmed that Mongols were familiar with alcohol distillation. See in particular Luo Feng, Liquor Still and Milk-wine Distilling Technology in the Mongol-Yuan Period (2012).
[5] See Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg. Sciences politiques, histoire et philologie, Volume 3. The passage in Persian is on page 235 (قمز بود وبال ونبذ وعرق””), while the French translation is on page 413. The banquet is supposed to have happened in the year 1391 (793 AH). Sharaf ad-DīnʿAlī Yazdī wrote his Zafarnama several years later (probably in 1424–1428).
[6] I came upon this crucial piece of evidence by reading footnote 15 of Oleksander Halenko, Wine Production, Marketing and Consumption in the Ottoman Crimea, 1520–1542 (2004, page 515). A French translation of the tax registers for the Eyalet of Kefe dated 1542–1543 can be found in Gilles Veinstein and Mihnea Berindei, Règlements de Süleymân Ier concernant le livâ’ de Kefe (1975).
