On 31 January 2017, according to legend, it is the 152 year since the moment when the great Russian scientist-encyclopedist Dmitri Mendeleev invented vodka. The reason for this is on that date Professor of St. Petersburg University (now St. Petersburg State University) defended his dissertation titled “the combination of alcohol with water” which started the myth that Mendeleev created the recipe of vodka (“solution”). However, according to the press service of St.-Petersburg University (SPbGU), this is not so. In fact, the 40-degree solution was created by decision of the Russian government long before, in 1843 (regulation that “fortress solution should not be below 38 degrees” in Northern regions and 25-27 degrees for Southern).
Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907) is Russian philosopher, sociologist, chemist, physicist, economist, oilman, well-known for its contribution to the creation of the Periodic system (Table-periodicity of chemical elements) and the forecast on growth of the population of Russia, created on the basis of the First General census of the Russian Empire in 1897. He beloved much then fashionable spiritualism.
The Director of the Museum-archive of Mendeleev, St. Petersburg, Igor Dmitriev defended the reputation of a patriot and a scientist and explained what was written in that dissertation. “The combination of alcohol with water” – the “solution” – is not vodka, the thesis was about getting absolute alcohol, which was “ordered” to D. Mendeleev by the government and then allowed scientists to study and to determine the fortress spirtovanny solutions. The latter served as a base for the introduction of indirect taxes (excises) on vodka, which, to our shame, filled the state budget.
I love my country as mother, and science as a spirit,
who blesses, enlightens and unites all peoples
for the benefit and peaceful development of spiritual and material wealth.
Dmitry I. Mendeleev
“The spirometrical table can’t tell what should be the concentration of “perfect” vodka mixture, as well as the tonometer is not a cure,” said Igor Dmitriev.
Source: Saint-Petersburg University
