Ukraine orders name change of Soviet ‘Champagne’

The introduction of a decommunisation law in Ukraine has forced a sparkling wine producer known for its “Soviet Champagne” to change its name.

A 1952 poster advertising Soviet Champagne

First bottled in 1928, during Russian communist leader Joseph Stalin’s reign of power, Sovetskoye Shampanskoye, or Soviet Champagne, is a brand of sparkling wine produced in the Soviet Union and successor states.

Typically made from a blend of Aligoté and Chardonnay, Soviet Champagne was produced for many years by the state becoming a popular, and cheaper, alternative to Champagne, particularly at New Year celebrations.

After the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, private corporations in Belarus, Russia, Moldova and Ukraine purchased the rights to produce “Soviet Champagne”, which is still produced under that name today.

However new regulations that came into effect in Ukraine in May of last year banning the names of streets, towns and products from glorifying communism, has forced the company to change its name.

The Kiev winery that produces the sparkling wine has said it will now be known as Sovietov, taking a marginal step back from its Soviet heritage.

“We have taken this step to save one of the main traditions of the new year celebration,” the Ersatz Champagne company said.

The regulations, which came into force last May, ban any street, town or product from having names that glorify communism and also make it a crime to deny the “criminal character of the communist totalitarian regime of 1917-1991 in Ukraine”, as reported by The Guardian. 

On 23 December, the Ukrainian parliament approved a list of 108 towns and villages that will have their names changed after local consultation, including Artemovsk, a major town in east Ukraine named after Comrade Artem, an early Russian revolutionary. The town will go back to its pre-revolutionary name of Bakhmut.