Molotov cocktail

weapon

Also known as: bottle bomb, burn bottle, fire bottle, flaming bottle, gasoline bomb, petrol bomb, poor man’s grenade(Show More)

Written by

Sanat Pai Raikar

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Britannica Editors

History

Molotov cocktail, a crude bomb, typically consisting of a bottle filled with a flammable liquid and a wick that is ignited before throwing. It explodes into a fireball when it smashes against a hard surface. The Molotov cocktail is named for Vyacheslav Molotov, the foreign minister of the Soviet Union during and after World War II, though Molotov was not its inventor. It is also called a bottle bomb, burn bottle, fire bottle, flaming bottle, and poor man’s grenade, among many other names. Molotov cocktails have become a symbol of local, popular uprisings and revolutions against organized forces, typically governments.

Origins of the name

Molotov was the Soviet foreign minister in 1939 when he authorized the illegal Soviet invasion of Finland during the early days of World War II, thus starting the Russo-Finnish War. Molotov, skilled in propaganda, referred to the cluster bombs dropped by the Soviets on Finland as “food parcels” for starving Finns. The Finnish resistance was stronger than the Soviet Union had expected, and the invasion lasted through the winter and into March 1940, when the vastly outnumbered Finns agreed to a peace treaty.

Finnish fighters used incendiary weapons made from bottles filled with a mixture of flammable materials and stoppered with wicks. They were designed by a team led by Eero Kuittinen, a captain in Finland’s army. In a bit of black humor, Finns christened them “Molotov cocktails”—drinks intended to accompany Molotov’s “food parcels.” The distillery at Rajamäki, outside Helsinki, which was owned by Finland’s state-owned alcohol monopoly, Oy Alkoholiliike Ab, switched to making Molotov cocktails, and it even acquired several antiaircraft guns to counter Soviet bombers targeting the distillery. Some 540,000 Molotov cocktails were manufactured by a workforce of more than 90 people, almost all of them women. The popularity of the weapons during the conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union led to the global adoption of the term Molotov cocktail.

Early history

While its name originated in Finland, the Molotov cocktail was not first used there, nor was the Russo-Finnish War the first time Soviet-made tanks faced them. Crude versions of the Molotov cocktail were used (and documented) in 1922 by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), but they were cast aside by IRA leadership as they were considered too ineffective against armored cars. The first prominent use of these bombs was during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, when Nationalist troops under Francisco Franco, lacking conventional antitank weapons, used them to successfully counter Soviet-supplied tanks used by the Republicans. Unlike modern tanks that use diesel engines, tanks of that period ran on gasoline, with easily accessible tanks for quick refueling. This meant that a well-targeted projectile could potentially set the whole fuel tank ablaze, a task the Molotov cocktail performed with aplomb. These tanks also had an air intake valve to filter carbon monoxide fumes; if the bomb reached this valve, it could potentially ignite live ammunition in the tank, completely destroying it. The smoke caused by the bombs would, in addition, blind the crew and prevent the tank’s gunners from having a clear line of sight.

During World War II, in preparation for an expected Nazi invasion, Britain started making Molotov cocktails. In 1940 the popular British magazine Picture Post published what it called a “guide-book for defenders” of Britain, written by a Republican officer in the Spanish Civil War; among the weapons described in detail were Molotov cocktails, which, the officer advised, should be made with jam jars and covered with blankets, because they would ignite and make “a really healthy fire.” The British Home Guard was trained in their usage. Britain also manufactured so-called No. 76 grenades, which were, basically, significantly modified Molotov cocktails. Some six million of these grenades were made, and boxes of them were stashed all over the country; some of these boxes are still being discovered today.

Use after World War II

Since World War II, Molotov cocktails have been used in conflicts around the world. Hungarian fighters during the 1956 revolution against the Soviet Union used them to destroy close to 400 Soviet tanks before the rebellion was crushed. Czechs used them in 1968 during the Prague Spring protests against Warsaw Pact troops.

Ukrainian militias made use of Molotov cocktails following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These weapons have also been used by protesters against police and government forces around the world. Molotov cocktails have also inspired related weapons, such as the “puputovs” used by demonstrators in Venezuela in 2017, which were glass containers filled with excrement and thrown at that country’s National Guard.

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