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 (approximately 2.6 million
decalitres) 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 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 2002 the Kristall plant signed an agreement with the Estonian Onistar plant for the production of beverages under its own brands. The plant produced vodka «Embassy», «Gzhelka", «Golden Ring» and «Old Moscow». In the 2010s vodka was bottled at the plant for Kristall-Lefortovo (Old Moscow and Festive brands) and the Eastern European Distribution Company VEDK (brands «Putinka», «Dvoynaya», 30.4%). The most famous brands of the plant are vodka «Putinka», «CRISTALL Golden Ring», «Moskovskaya Kristall», «Stary Arbat», «Golden Ring» and others. In 2013 the plant stopped production due to the transfer of the enterprise to the Korystovo branch. The production lines were stopped on May 15. Before that the Korystovo branch was launched at full capacity — according to 2013 it produced 7 million
decaliters (dal) of vodka per year. In connection with the move, the plant stopped producing products of the companies Kristall-Lefortovo («Old Moscow» and «Prazdnichnaya») and Kazenka («Kazenka» vodka). In 2014 the territory of the plant was planned to be transformed into an urban quarter, with its own infrastructure, offices, workshops, lofts, sports and educational areas. In 2015 the redevelopment project was frozen due to lack of funding. == Financial performance ==