Today Zhigulevskoe beer is the most popular and recognizable brand. Beer with this name is produced at many enterprises in Russia and the countries of the former USSR. And where did this name come from, why exactly "Zhigulevskoe" and not "Volzhskoe" or "Donskoe" beer became the symbol of the USSR?
The history of the emergence of this popular brand began in 1880, when in the Samara province it was decided to allocate a place for the construction of a brewery on the banks of the Volga. Austrian Alfred von Wakano began construction on a grand scale. The lease period for the land was 99 years. The scale of construction is evidenced by the fact that later the first power plant in Samara was built at this brewery.
Beer production began in 1881. Alfred von Wakano called it "Vienna", it later became "Zhigulevsky". The company was doing well. In the first year, the brewery produced 75,000 buckets of intoxicating drink, and by the beginning of the First World War, the plant's products were supplied to 60 cities of the Russian Empire, and the enterprise's productivity increased to 2,500,000 buckets per year.
The plant was called "Zhigulevskoe", but beer varieties with that name were not produced here. After the revolution of 1917, the company was nationalized, and Alfred von Wakano left back to his historical homeland.
Zhigulevsky brewery became one of the largest enterprises in the USSR. It is believed that the name "Zhigulevskoe" was invented by the People's Commissar of the Food Industry Anastas Mikoyan, who visited the enterprise in 1934 and expressed his bewilderment: why "Vienna" beer is produced in Samara. It was then that the beer produced at this plant began to be called "Zhigulevsky". In the USSR, this name has gained immense popularity. "Zhigulevskoe" beer was brewed by more than 700 breweries in the country.
