Since the 1950s, faceted glass has become one of the main "folk" symbols of the Soviet Union, and after its collapse - the subject of endless nostalgia. Not lost, however, its practical application: as an indispensable companion of small and large feasts and as a measured capacity, which is always at hand. Faceted glasses are universal products. With a dense train of legends following them. Let's try to figure out what is true in the history of granchak, and what is beautiful, but a fairy tale.
Indeed, the legend is the story of the gift of the famous Vladimir glass-blower Yefim Smolin to Tsar Peter I. Having drunk green wine from a thick-walled granchak, the one who had the urine grabbed them with ground, shouting: “I need a glass!” Take Granchak and scatter into fragments. But the glassblower swore that he was not beating! However, everything worked out. Since the retinue "translated" the king’s words - "beat glasses!", From here, they say, the custom went, after drinking, to break the dishes for good.
Samples of 17th-century glassware, including faceted glasses, are now kept in the Hermitage. And this is not a legend.
It can also be considered a legend that the authorship of the Soviet faceted glass belongs to the famous sculptor, the creator of the world-famous monument
"Worker and Collective Farm Girl" Vera Mukhina. Yes, in collaboration with the avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich. The latter died in 1935. Mukhina, however, came to grips with glass only in the late 1940s. True, the task also dates back to this time: to create a sufficiently strong glass for the needs of public catering, which would withstand the washing process in the dishwasher.
Another legend is the day the first glass with faces was made, from which all Soviet faceted glasses are traced: September 11, 1943. At that time, the famous factory in Gus-Khrustalny, where it supposedly happened, was engaged in the production of exclusively military medical products: thermometers, flasks, flasks, etc.
At least three commonplace expressions are associated with granchak. “Simple as three pennies” - this is how much the product cost at the dawn of its existence. "Seven-cents", i.e. there’s nowhere more primitive, - reflects the price of a faceted glass in the 1970-1980s. Finally, the legendary "figure for three?" In the early 1960s, the government, struggling with drunkenness, put a strong hand on the retail trade in alcohol, prohibiting the sale of vodka for bottling and removing from the assortment 125-gram bastards and half-large pieces of bread. The standard half-liter cost 2 rubles 87 kopecks. It was believed that every hard worker had a ruble with him for lunch. “For three” there was enough money, and each faceted glass of grams contained enough.
The classic faceted glass is 110 mm high, the diameter of its bottom is 65 mm, and along the throat is 75 mm. The number of faces is 16 (a 20-sided glass cost 14 kopecks). Volume - 200 cu. see. If you pour it on the rim, 200 ml comes out, if to the edges - 250 ml. But milk enters it 204 ml, sour cream - 210 ml. Sugar in a faceted glass, if to the brim, weighs 200 grams. It can also hold 9 egg whites or 10 yolks. Finally, a “glass of seeds" without a container weighs 90 grams. And if you clean them - 58.
In the 80s, misfortune happened: a real epidemic of explosions of granchaks swept across the country. The resonance was not weak: articles appeared in the press, a plot in the satirical newsreel "Wick". Finally, the party, sensing ideological sabotage (the whole country was drinking!), Instructed the competent authorities: to sort it out. Soon they reported: everything was to blame - a small change in technology that had to be made due to the introduction of import lines at glassworks. As a result of changes in the structure of glass, faceted glasses acquired the property of literally crumbling from loud sounds. Incidentally, this episode is shown at the very beginning of the famous series "Brigade".