Belomorkanal (cigarettes)

The brand was created in 1932 at the Uritsky factory ^[4] in Leningrad . The author of the tobacco mixture (bag) is technologist V. Ioanidi . The author of the drawing on the pack is artist A. Tarakanov ^[5] .

The overall design of the pack has remained unchanged for many years. In the 1940s, the picture with the map on the packaging looked a bit different: the Suez and Kiel Canals were also marked on it. This design had propaganda goals, since the White Sea-Baltic Canal was the longest in the world. An example of a pack with this design is in the exposition of the Museum of Defense of Leningrad ^[6] . In the 2000s, Belomorkanal cigarettes with a similar design were produced in Russia.

Modernity

Belomorkanal is still produced in Russia and some post-Soviet republics. Demand for one of the most recognizable cigarette brands of the Soviet era remains stable. In addition to cigarettes, vodka ^[7] , cologne ^[8] and cigarettes with the Belomorkanal filter and the same picture ^{[3] are} produced. The most common examples of cigarette packs still depict the border of the USSR as of before the Soviet-Finnish war .

The Donskoy Tabak company produces Belomorkanal cigarettes in a metal souvenir package of 18 pieces ^[9] .

There is a myth that the diameter of Soviet cigarettes was 7.62 mm, supposedly in order to launch the production of cartridges if necessary on the same machines. However, the diameter of the sleeve of the Soviet cartridge 7.62 × 39 mm is 7.85 mm, and the diameter of the bottom is exactly 10.00 mm; in addition, all other parts of the cartridge have completely different diameters, and the production of bullets has nothing to do with the production of cigarettes. In fact, the coincidence of the size of 7.62 mm so unusual for the metric system is not due at all to the causal relationship “cartridge-cigarettes”, but to the fact that in the inch system this size is indicated by a completely “round” number of 3/10 inches.

In the Soviet Union, these cigarettes were used to secretly give bribes . At the same time, tobacco was removed from the cigarettes, and a banknote rolled into a tube was inserted into the empty sleeve. After that, the recipient of the bribe was offered to smoke and handed this cigarette.

• The cigarettes Belomorkanal (as well as some other brands of cigarettes - Kazbek , Kurortnye and Severnaya Palmira) are mentioned in the play Envy, in which Arkady Raikin played the main role. His character, supply manager Lyzin, says: “We are not proud people, we smoke Belomor” ^[10] .
• The protagonist of the film “ Watch Out for the Car ” Yuri Detochkin, before another attempt to steal the “Volga” car , went to the tobacco kiosk with the goal of acquiring Belomorkanal, but there were no such cigarettes and he bought cigarettes “Friend”. This fact, told by the seller of the tobacco kiosk to investigator Maxim Podberezovikov, later helped expose Detochkin. The hidden meaning of the episode is that the White Sea-Baltic Canal is associated with prisoners, and the dog depicted on the pack of cigarettes “Friend” - with watchdogs.

In cigarettes, Belomora was smoked by marijuana smokers, in view of the convenience of the liner and the subtlety of tissue paper. Therefore, many people associate these cigarettes with illegal smoking of marijuana in the USSR and the Russian Federation.

•   Wikimedia Commons has media files on the subject of "White Sea"
• Photo and description of cigarette packs Belomorkanal