Vodka “Sadko” is produced by “Alcon” in Novgorod the Great. Being one of the oldest Russian distilleries, “Alcon”, according to the opinion of independent experts, is the best in the field. The distilling manufacturing has been developing in Novgorod for centuries. Thus, archival documents make usual mention of the 19th-century distillery situated in Nutnaya Street; at that time it was owned by Akim Stalnov, the merchant belonging to the top guild. In 1897 Ivan Korsakov opened a new rectifiable manufacture at the corner of Posolskaya and Slavnaya Streets and the embankment of the Volkhov River. There were only 8 workers at that distillery in 1899. At the same time, in accordance with the imperial command on wine monopoly a brick two-storeyed wine house was constructed in Novgorod. It was named the First Novgorodian Public Wine Storehouse. It consisted of a number of departments: a reception-room, a tank-compartment, a filtration room, a casting shop, packing and sorting compartments, and a bureau. The brick building of the cooperage, the washhouse, the larder, and the ice-house were located close by. The turnery and the chemical laboratory were attached to the storehouse. In 1914 the wine storehouse and Korsakov’s distilleries were shut down. For the WWI period they were accommodated as infirmaries for the wounded. After the Great October Revolution of 1917, a new Provincial Wine Storehouse was opened in Guzhevaya Street. Spirit, produced at the storehouse, was distributed among different Novgorodian factories and organizations under the central authority of “Centrispirit”. In the first instance it was provided for the medical establishments of the city. In 1924 the Novgorodian State Distillery was inaugurated at No. 27 Guzhevaya Street. Its opening was connected with the necessity to get rid of the home-distilled production of vodka. With that end in view, the unique recipe of vodka “Russian bitters” was worked out to be produced in Novgorod. The first lot of that vodka was put out in October 1924. Then, the factory was renamed – it became the Fifth Novgorodian Distillery. It controlled various wine shops and storehouses situated in Novgorod. There were 125 workers at the distillery in 1927. The factory worked seven days a week, expanding its output; in the last quarter of 1937 alone it produced 335 thousand decalitres of vodka. In 1937 the distillery set about the production of wheat vodka; at the beginning of 1936 it started the output of liqueurs. 200 people worked at the distillery in 1937; at that time it consisted of 19 departments. During the WWII the factory has been destroyed; its reconstruction began in July 1944. A. I. Pletnev was appointed as its director. The first batch of 400-vodka was put out at the renewed distillery in 1945. In the 1960’s the new buildings of a wine storehouse and a mechanized bottle workshop were constructed.