title: Tobacco Production in Russia: The Transition to Communism
abstract: Although the tobacco business struggled in Russia under Peter the Great (1689-1725), by the time of Catherine II (1762-1796) it began to grow. On July 31, 1762, the empress established the free trade of tobacco, and soon thereafter the fi rst tobacconists in St. Petersburg were opened by foreigners. They sold crumbled smoking tobacco and by 1812 the number of such production houses rose to six; however, all of these worked with imported raw materials.1 Russia received is fi rst large-scale, inte