Lev Leontyevitch Gorbachev was the operator of a vodka distillery in
St. Petersburg, Russia. During the
October Revolution, Gorbachev left his homeland along with his family for
Berlin, where he started to produce vodka on April 28, 1921. The brand name, the
onion-domed bottle and the blue label were registered by the
L. Gorbatschow & Co. as a trademark in 1923. In 1938,
Gorbatschow Liköre J. Kramer & Co. was
aryanized as a Jewish company and taken over by pharmacist Otto Ludwig Heinen, who became a member of the
Waffen-SS in 1939. Due to various charges, Heinen was sent to
SS-Totenkopfverbände and classified as exonerated during
denazification in 1946. Arthur Barth, who had entered the company
Gorbatschow-Liköre Dr. Heinen & Co. before the end of the war, became director after Heinen moved back to his hometown Munich
. In 1960, the company
Gorbatschow-Wodka Arthur Barth was acquired by the Söhnlein Rheingold KG corporate to become marketed nationwide. Since 1975, the brand's slogan is
Des Wodkas reine Seele (English:
The pure soul of vodka), alluding to the cliché of the
Russian soul. The campaign was launched after Soviet vodka brands had successfully entered the West-German market. ==Products==