Molotov Cocktail

   The antitank weapon called a Molotov cocktail was not named to honor Molotov. Although how it was so dubbed is a matter of dispute, it is believed to have been named by the Finns during the Russo-Finnish War of 1939-1940 as a satirical honor for their antagonist—a cocktail for Molotov. In any event it has been used with lethal success by the armies of several countries. The weapon is a simple one. It consists of a bottle filled with inflammable fluid such as gasoline, with a slow fuse such as rag protruding from the neck. The rag is ignited and the bottle thrown against the side of a tank, where it bursts into flames, spreading the liquid over the surface of the tank. The "cocktail" is very much like a homemade grenade. A cannister of incendiary bombs, launched from a plane as it opens and showers the bombs over a wide area, is called a Molotov breadbasket.

   Molotov, the alias of the Russian diplomat Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skriabin (1890-1986), dominated Russian foreign policy under Stalin. He was so indispensable to Stalin that he accompanied him to all the important international conferences. He negotiated the infamous MolotovRibbentrop pact, in 1939, otherwise known as the Pact of Steel. After Stalin's death, Molotov fell out of favor with Khrushchev, who labeled him a saboteur of peace, accused him of policy failures, and then bestowed on him the supreme honor of ambassador to Mongolia. He was expelled from the Communist Party in 1964, the very party he helped found. But in a show of compassion, the party reinstated him in 1984, at which time he was ninety-four years of age.