500 Sodas in the Land of Vodka

Thirty-four dead. That’s the latest macabre toll from alcohol poisoning from a locally produced spirit in the Orenburg region of Russia. Since the tragedy in Irkutsk, in Siberia, where around 50 people died after swallowing bath lotion, the Russian...

The history of Coca-Cola in Soviet countries is astonishing, worthy of a vintage comic book. From Field Marshal Zhukov, who defeated Berlin, to vehicle swapping at the height of the Cold War, the American drink, supreme emblem of “Western...