The network of LCBO stores selling alcohol in the province of Ontario has banned vodka, the name of which is associated with Stalin. They did so after complaints that the product name resembled that of the communist dictator of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin.

Stalinskaya Silver Vodka – this is the full name name of the vodka that was sold by the LCBO chain both in stores and on the Internet. It is made in Romania and its sale in Ontario has ended due to numerous complaints from the Ukrainian community.

The Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, representing the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, drew attention to this problem, among others by posting on social media.

A Facebook group called Ukrainian Canada called on LCBO to stop selling and suggested that LCBO needed to learn history.

In a Facebook post (here below, from https://www.facebook.com/canadaua) they wrote: “LCBO sells Stalinskaya Vodka, a product named after Joseph Stalin, the tyrant responsible for the torture and murder of millions of people in the Soviet Gulag camps. Stalin deported and annihilated entire ethnic communities of Chechens, Ingush, Tatars, organized the Holodomor genocide, killing millions of Ukrainians, built a regime that massively murdered people with conflicting opinions and beliefs”.

LCBO concluded that Stalinskaya Silver did not meet its naming and labeling standards.

The vodka company began selling it in Ontario stores in May. On their Facebook page they wrote that “Stalinskaya” means strength and is inspired by the Russian word “stal” standing for “steel”.

As the vodka brand hit the shelves, the Ukrainian community began sending letters to the LCBO to stop selling it, saying the name had terrifying memories of the Soviet Union and Stalin.

Stalin ruled the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1952 and became famous as one of the most terrible tyrants and dictators of all time. All Eastern Europe suffered atrocities on his part. Stalin, just 17 days after the German invasion of Poland from the west in September 1939, invaded and captured the eastern part of Poland, up to the border established by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Immediately after capturing half of Poland in 1939, he killed a huge part of the Polish most educated people, scientists, teachers, policemen, soldiers, officers and state officials. He is responsible for mass executions of millions of people, deadly famines, ethnic cleansing and forced labor in camps called Gulag.

The Ukrainian community welcomed the decision of the Ontario LCBO, but now faces the task of persuading the rest of Canada to do the same.