The Main Trends in the Development of Distillery Production in Russia (XVI – XVIII Centuries)

Relevance. The alcohol sphere is one of the actively reformed spheres in the Russian economy. The state is constantly improving the regulatory arsenal in relation to alcohol in order to achieve a balance of public and fiscal interests. In this regard, the experience of the development of alcohol production in previous historical periods is of particular relevance, which allows us to see the logic of the development of distillery production. The purpose is to indicate the main directions of development of distillery production in Russia. The objectives of the study are determined by the goal and are to: to highlight the existing opinions about the time of the "birth" of distilling in Russia; to consider the smoking of wine as a production process; to identify trends in the development of alcohol production in the XVI – XVIII centuries. Methodology. The principles of historicism, consistency and scientific objectivity were the main ones in the preparation of the article. Individual scientific tasks were solved using special methods, including comparative, typo-logical and genetic. Results. The surviving sources do not allow us to determine the exact time of the appearance of distillery pro-duction in Russia. The authors who tried to find the "roots" of Russian distilling did not come to a common opinion: some believe that the distillation process was borrowed by Russians from Europeans; others – that wine smoking has been carried out in Russia since time immemorial, but the sources have not been preserved. Innovations in the production of bread wine for a significant chronological period were barely noticeable. The equipment of distilleries has been simple for many centuries, except that the vats eventually began to be heated not by an open fire, but by hot steam. Distilling remained traditional and agricultural, designed for the needs and capabilities of one traditionally conducted economy. Rye remained the main distillery material. In the process of malting, fermentation and distillation, a significant part of the product was lost. Government decrees had little effect on productivity and on the ways of smoking wine. Conclusion. The main directions of the development of distillery production in Russia consisted in the growth of the number of distilleries, the preservation of a primitive device for many years, the absence of the need for manu-facturers to coordinate the quantity and quality of products produced with the market.