To the tear gas fired by the police in Ferguson, the protesters respond with Molotov , the eternal weapon of urban revolutionaries.
The construction of the cocktail is very easy and costs nothing. The Molotov cocktail is believed to have been invented during the Spanish Civil War, where it was used by the Republicans against the Nationalists. The ingredients placed in bottles create a sticky and flammable substance, which is ignited by a cloth soaked in oil that is located at the bottle's mouth acting as a fuse. When the “bottle bomb” hits its target, the sticky fuel mixture and flame ignite, causing damage to anything in front of it.
But how is the bomb connected to his name by Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister who signed the secret 1939 pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany for non-aggression between the two countries in World War II?
The answer comes from Finland.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact divided Europe into «spheres of influence», with Poland under Nazi and Soviet control, Finland was ceded to the Soviets.
The winter of 1939, after the occupation of eastern Poland and leaving the western part of the country to the Third Reich, the Soviets invaded Finland. Molotov, said then in a speech that: “Tomorrow we will dine in Helsinki!” The Finns, on the other hand, after Molotov's statement, and when Russian bombs started falling, they called them “baskets of Molotov's bread” and the name they gave to the improvised weapons they used against the Soviet army they called “Molotov cocktails.”
The Finnish company Alko, a liqueur manufacturing group, mass‑produced 450,000 Molotov bombs during the war. The weapon proved decisive in halting Soviet forces. The use of Molotovs spread during the war and was employed by both the Allies and the Axis powers.
The article was originally published in The New Republic
